President-elect Donald Trump is rolling out his cabinet picks with a flourish. Unlike during his first term, Trump seems ready to hit the ground running from his first day in office.
It was well known, the Trump team has made it clear that the main criterion for service would be personal loyalty to Trump. This meant those who stood by him during the four-years of the Biden administration and people who echoed his claim that the 2020 elections were stolen from him.
Trump's Controversial Picks
Two of Donald Trump’s choices have set alarm bells ringing in Washington. Matt Gaetz, his nominee as Attorney General will head the Justice department. Gaetz, 42 is fiercely loyal to Trump and much like Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ``wolf warrior’’. Like his boss he has accused the Democrats of weaponizing the Justice department to attack political rivals like President Trump.
“We ought to have a full court press against this WEAPONIZED government that has been turned against our people,” Gaetz said. “And if that means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!” pbs.org quoted him as saying.
Gaetz has publicly said that the Justice department has to be demolished and cut to size. The fear is Gaetz if he gets confirmed for the job, will use his power to hound out those who acted against Trump.
Gaetz, a Republican Representative from Florida, has been reelected for a fifth term. He is a controversial figure, with a number of cases against him. He is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for misconduct, including allegations of sex with 17-year old minor, illicit drug use, converting campaign funds for personal use and accepting valuable gifts not permissible under House rules.
Gaetz has denied these allegations as politically motivated. “The lawful, consensual sexual activities of adults are not the business of Congress,” he wrote in a letter posted to social media in September.
Not just Democrats but many Republicans are shocked by Trump’s choice of Gaetz as AG. According to US media reports he may have a tough time getting confirmation of Senate members.
The other controversial choice is Tulsi Gabbard, 43, a Hindu American of Samoan heritage. She was the Democratic Representative for Hawaii from 2013 to 2021. She is a military veteran and saw action in Iraq. Gabbard was regarded as a progressive within the Democratic party and was once close to Bernie Sanders.
She quit the party in 2022, and had endorsed Donald Trump a few months before the November elections. Now she is Trump’s choice to be director of National Intelligence. If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard would oversee 18 intelligence agencies including the CIA and FBI.
Many in the US strategic circles regard her as a security risk. John Bolton, National Security Adviser for a year during Trump’s previous term. He left mid-way like several others who found it impossible to work with the president.
Bolton told CNN that he thought she was the worst cabinet level appointment in history, till he got news of Matt Gaetz’s appointment. Bolton hoped the Senate would reject both these two candidates.
She visited Damascus in 2017, to meet Syrian President Bashar al Asad, regarded as a dictator and a tyrant by the liberal press in the US. She had defended President Asad and rightly pointed out that Syria could never be a threat to America.
It was too small a country to challenge the US. She is also seen as pro Russia and had been critical of the Biden administration’s foreign policy. Like Trump, Gabbard is an admirer of strong leaders like Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi. And again like her boss she is not a warmonger and wants an end to the war in Ukraine. Her views on Israel and Palestine are not known.
Trump’s choice of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State is being widely endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants had challenged Trump during the Republican primaries leading to the 2016 elections.
Despite the bad blood during the primaries, the two kissed and made up later as Trump reshaped the party to his image. Rubio like other Republican lawmakers realized that without Trump’s endorsement there was little hope of winning elections among Republican voters.
Rubio is part of the Washington establishment and is well versed in global affairs. He was vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
He is in line with Trump’s views on China and is a proverbial China-baiter. As such he is seen by many in New Delhi as pro-India. He will be tough on China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
``They all share one goal, and that is, they want to weaken America, weaken our alliances, weaken our standing and our capability and our will,” he said in a speech last March.
Like most American politicians Rubio is also a staunch supporter of Israel and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
