Just a couple days ago, I wrote about the importance of the upcoming appointments in the incoming Trump administration. Since that time, there have been a flurry of nominations.
I generally like to talk about ideas and not people, and since this is the first election I’ve really drilled this deep into the process, I have no idea who many of these people are and have only heard of some of the others. (Is paying more attention to the players something you’d like me to do? Let me know in the comments!) As a result, I expect much of the ‘good’ information to come out of the comments section. (As usual.)
Here’s who we have so far, in order of announcement. (Clicking the link takes you to Trump’s announcement, which has a little more information on each nominee)
Tom Homan - “The Border Czar”
By all accounts, this guy seems to be a hard ass. My favorite video is his interaction with Pramila Jayapal — who’s suddenly not so keen on ending the filibuster as she was a couple weeks ago.
Now they both work for us.
Lee Zeldin - EPA
I don’t know anything about this guy, let’s check Yahoo…….
*sigh*
Elise Stefanik - Ambassador to the UN
I remember her being a Ukraine hawk. Not impressed.
Mike Waltz - National Security Advisor
Don’t know much about this guy, but I love his video:
Mike Huckabee - Ambassador to Israel
Huckabee’s extremely pro-Israel, so this sort of makes complete sense. I don’t want him near the actual foreign policy, though.
Steven Witkoff - Special Envoy to the Middle East
Witkoff seems to be a private-sector negotiator type. One of Trump’s old friends, it seems like this is the main guy Trump will be leaning on.
William McGinley - White House Counsel
He’s already worked a couple years under the first Trump administration, so at least he knows what he’s getting himself into?
John Ratcliffe - Director of the CIA
Ratcliffe was briefly Director of National Intelligence under the first Trump administration, and defended Trump during the Ukraine impeachment. If we’re looking for somebody to show the public proof of the CIA’s malfeasance, he seems like a good candidate.
Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defense
I have never heard of this guy, but the media is — IN UNISON — describing Hegseth as a TV show host and “conveniently” forgetting his two decades in the military. I think it would be helpful to have a ground-level view of war when the room is dominated by satellite-level views of war. Here’s the most interesting Hegseth video I found:
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - Department of Government Efficiency
Obviously two of the most “famous” nominations (Appointees in this case? Who knows.) I approve of their intent but am not so sure they’ll be able to get stuff done.
Kristi Noem - Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Noem was the only governor that didn’t shut down their state during covid, properly noting that she didn’t have that authority. As a result, I paid a lot of attention to South Dakota’s covid stats all through the pandemic — they remained at a pretty constant level of 35% hospital bed availability.
On the other hand, she wrote about shooting her dog, so at some level you have to question the decision-making.
Marco Rubio - Secretary of State
BOO! HISS!
I remember Rubio being one of the fake Tea Partiers that ended up being John McCain. Please, somebody make the case for Rubio below.
Tulsi Gabbard - Director of National Intelligence
We’ve talked a lot about Tulsi, and this will be a perfect chance to find out exactly who put her on the Quiet Skies list. Neocon David Frum is not happy — which makes me happy.
Matt Gaetz - Attorney General
This looks to be the last nomination of the day, as it’s been radio silence from Trump for the last three hours. I don’t know much about Gaetz (other than the rumors), but I did enjoy this clip of him skewering Merrick Garland:
(Thanks to Clint Russell for digging up the video!)
I’m all for the people who have been attacked leading the charge against their attackers by making everything public. Is Gaetz that guy?
At least there’s no Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo….but if we squint, how many Haley and Pompeos (who are really all John McCains) do we see? Too many, I think.
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Plus for Rubio: He WAS the one who asked Victoria Nuland about the biolabs in Ukraine. The ones that didn't exist but it would be extremely dangerous if they fell into Russian hands.
https://rumble.com/v1tnth8-november-11-2022.html
PETE HEGSETH: Now this one is interesting especially if Trump doesn't clean house with ALL the Join Chiefs. Segeth is not top brass when retired so what we'll have is the highest brass in the military having to answer to him and those arrogant pricks are not going to like that at all especially since he's anti-woke and anti-DEI.
I predict that within 2 years we will see a surge in military enlistment as American men once again are proud to serve