The Patriot Post® · Cabinet-Building, Trump Style

Is anyone surprised at Donald Trump’s frenetic jump start? Can you visualize him taking a little down time until his inauguration on January 20th? No chance.

We know Trump. He’s fearless. He dodged two assassination attempts. He’s a world-class disrupter. He has a clear mandate for change. He’s thrown caution to the wind at every turn just for a chance to be right where he is now. He’s nearly 80 years old, and he knows this opportunity will never come again. All good.

Step one is assembling his team, and he’s doing so with typical reckless abandon, announcing over 30 nominations for cabinet and other senior-level positions in his first 10 days after the election. All good.

There’s much to admire about his selections — and several things that cause concern. And it is no surprise that some of his choices are making his political opponents’ heads explode. Much of their criticism is stock political Trump-trashing, but some is legit. Not all good.

I’d argue that the principal selection criteria for presidential cabinet appointments (and for just about any truly important job) should be:

1.) Lifetime achievement: candidates who successfully meet every challenge they face. 2.) Demonstrable capability in the skillsets demanded by the position. 3.) Full buy-in on the hiring organization’s core principles (in this case, MAGA).

Against those criteria, two of Trump’s nominations seem particularly questionable (or, as characterized by his critics, “stunning,” “loony,” “bats**t crazy”): Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense and Matt Gaetz for attorney general. My views on both:

Hegseth is best known as a Fox News TV personality, a credential that prompted instant indignant rejection by most on the Left. I loved watching Whoopi Goldberg and the ladies on “The View” ridiculing Hegseth as just a lowly weekend TV show host, not big-time Monday-to-Friday TV stars like them. Somehow, they skipped over his other credentials: decorated combat veteran, whip-smart (degrees from Princeton and Harvard), passionate and articulate conservative, and published author.

But here’s the rub — and it’s a big one. The Department of Defense is a bureaucratic nightmare, a Byzantine organization with three million military, civilian, and contract personnel worldwide and an $850 billion annual budget. And the job comes at a particularly dangerous time with storm warnings east and west. To deter World War III, we must retool, rebuild, and retrain our defense apparatus in short order.

The job is, at its core, a staggeringly difficult executive management position. Pete Hegseth brings enormous potential, but he has zero executive experience. All the passion and purity of MAGA thinking will not compensate for inadequate executive skills.

And then there’s Trump’s really ugly appointment, Matt Gaetz for AG. In my view, it’s a bad choice for several reasons.

Gaetz is the Florida congressman who has managed to alienate his colleagues on both sides of the political aisle. He has a checkered personal reputation tarnished by multiple allegations of sexual and other improprieties. He’s the firebrand who derailed the hard-won GOP House majority based on his personal beef with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Very much like the president-elect, Gaetz can be a human wrecking ball. In my view, one is enough.

Donald Trump has every reason to be furious at his treatment by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. Its political players tried to destroy him, and had it not been for his amazing resilience, they might have succeeded. The DOJ’s “lawfare” tactic targeting the administration’s chief political opponent is the stuff of banana republics; it is unprecedented and intolerable.

Trump’s central campaign theme was “they broke it, I’ll fix it.” But the Gaetz appointment seems more like “getting even” than “fixing.” I’ve no doubt that as attorney general, Gaetz can rack up as many political scalps as Merrick Garland — but what’s the point? That would just cement, and perhaps even propagate, that unacceptable behavior.

Instead, I’d like to see an all-business, highly respected new AG who comes in and cleans house, resetting DOJ priorities, processes, and practices, keeping the department visibly on track. That should include a thorough investigation, perhaps even a special counsel, to examine the Biden-era lawfare campaign and then recommend appropriate action, including demotion, termination, or even prosecution if warranted.

The new AG might also take a hard look at his predecessor’s FBI massive search, arrest, and prosecution of over 1,300 January 6 participants and recommend commutation or pardon of those whose only crime was trespassing.

The bottom line: Our new president is an experienced and savvy leader, but we’ve seen him fall victim to his own impulsive behavior. In this next term, he will succeed or fail based on the day-to-day performance of his executive team. A presidential cabinet high on MAGA philosophy but short on executive skill won’t cut it. Just as Trump doesn’t have the luxury of time to jump-start his administration, his key executives don’t have time to grow into their new, daunting positions.

Intrusive as it may be, the Senate confirmation process will serve a vital public interest by thoroughly vetting Trump’s nominations. The new Senate majority should give substantial deference to his preferences, and senators on both sides should resist the temptation for partisan point-making (wishful thinking on my part) — but if they dig in and do the work, they can boost public confidence and help the Trump administration get off to a good start.

I believe Trump — and the U.S. — will be better served if the Gaetz nomination fails in confirmation. I hope Hegseth passes muster and would be delighted for him to demonstrate an immediate, intuitive grasp of his executive role and build his own high-capability team.

This is no time for apprenticeships. The president who famously relished the words “you’re fired!” must be willing to take drastic, early action if any of his appointees don’t hit the ground running. Pete Hegseth, the consummate infantry officer and American patriot, understands that better than anyone.