Tuesday, December 10, 2024
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Trump Cabinet Picks are Accomplished and Formidable



I have watched with hopefulness as President Trump names his cabinet picks, including RFK Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, and others.   

The American people voted for dramatic change and President Trump is planning to deliver it. 

Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is intriguing, headed by Elon Musk and the talented Vivek Ramaswamy.  The thought of Musk developing a software program to ascertain who among our 2.87 million current federal employees are actually necessary to the running of the federal government will be tremendously encouraging to millions of Americans who believe the federal government is far too large, taxes and regulates far too much, and exerts far too much power over our daily lives.

In fact, reducing the footprint of the federal workforce should be low-hanging fruit for DOGE in that, at most, only one in three federal employees have even returned to the office since the China Virus Pandemic ended three years ago!

Over many decades the lines of constitutional authority at the federal level have become blurred and, as a result, our enormous federal agencies—and the tens of thousands of unelected bureaucrats who work at them—are where the laws we live under are actually interpreted and then enforced with far too much “discretion” afforded to the relevant agency. 

This is a violation of our U.S. Constitution which exclusively vests the constitutional authority to make our laws in the U.S. House and U.S Senate in conjunction with the president signing or vetoing a bill.  With the great support President Trump will no doubt give DOGE, I think by the time he leaves office he may have shrunk the size of the federal government by 1/3rd.

I am also intrigued by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK, Jr.) being nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  One of RFK Jr.’s great passions is addressing the terrible health of millions of Americans and the food, drink and drugs that are the cause of it.  At HHS, Kennedy will be able to directly address that problem. 

I am encouraged by the appointment of highly decorated Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.  He has combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and is currently an officer in the National Guard.  I think Trump values Hegseth’s strong personality and desire to weed out Woke, political, “TV” generals whose loyalty often seems to be to that behemoth of an institution, the Pentagon, as well as the military-industrial complex in general, rather than to the President who appointed them. 

When generals conduct themselves in this way the civilian military authority that our Constitution vests in our Commander-in-Chief is undermined.  This is to say nothing of the fact that generals who view the need to treat our military as an experiment in social engineering, including transgender and “racial equity” issues, also endanger the critical military mission.  I believe Hegseth will not hesitate to take this on.

I am excited to see Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota nominated for Department of Homeland Security and Tulsi Gabbard nominated as Director of National Intelligence.  I think they are competent, loyal, and tough.

I close with the nomination of U.S. Rep Matt Gaetz to serve as Attorney General. 

President Trump may view the greatest wound he suffered in his first term being when his then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself allowing the Russia “investigation” (hoax) to accelerate into what became the complete lie of a 2 year Mueller persecution of Trump and his Administration.  Further, while I was hopeful about Trump’s second AG appointment, Bill Barr, I ultimately was very disappointed in Barr’s unwillingness to fight for the Trump Administration or to even open an investigation into voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election when there was abundant video and eyewitness testimony in several swing States of rampant vote fraud and violation of federal and state law and regulation.  

An AG does not head an independent agency.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) is a part of the Executive Branch, and the AG serves at, and only at, the pleasure of the president who appoints him.  Barr was weak and “swampy.”  No more.  If Gaetz is confirmed he will apply the equivalent of a political blowtorch to the DOJ and bring that wayward monolith back to its constitutional roots—serving the president and the nation.

These are key first steps in re-establishing a “Government by the Consent of the Governed.”