Just two weeks after he won the presidency and enabled Republicans to capture control over both houses of Congress, Donald Trump has placed dozens of his loyal followers at the helm of the most powerful posts in the federal government in an effort to fulfill the clear mandate that he received from the voters to put this country back on the right path.
Trump is no doubt enjoying the outcry of rage from the entrenched members of the “deep state” bureaucracy [a.k.a. “the swamp”] and their cheering section in the mainstream media who justifiably feel threatened by the newly elected president’s picks for his cabinet and White House advisors, and their announced intention to dismantle and reform the wasteful and dysfunctional status quo in Washington.
These appointments include such disruptive figures as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken environmental lawyer who has been harshly critical of the federal government’s public health agencies, including their response to the Covid pandemic, as well as the unhealthy, additive-laden foods that we feed our children.
INVITING RFK JR. TO “GO WILD” IN TRANSFORMING FEDERAL HEALTH AGENCIES
By naming RFK Jr. as his choice for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Trump has encouraged him to “go wild” in radically transforming the priorities and methods of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Trump predicted that Kennedy would restore those health agencies “to the traditions of gold standard scientific research, and beacons of transparency, to end the chronic disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!” Kennedy responded by promising to “free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.”
Kennedy is the author of several books on health, vaccines, and the environment. He has also accused Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of having manipulated his agency’s scientific research and clinical trials for the benefit of the pharmaceutical companies and the manufacturers of vaccines, whose safety Kennedy believes to be suspect.
Democrat Senator Patty Murray of Washington State, who is a former chair of the Senate Health Committee, is one of RFK Jr.’s many critics in the American health establishment who have characterized him as a “notorious anti-vaxxer” and “fringe conspiracy theorist.” They also warn that his proposal to make many of the currently mandatory vaccine immunizations for school attendance optional could lead to epidemics of preventable childhood infectious diseases.
ADDRESSING THE CHILDHOOD DISEASE EPIDEMIC
But other health experts have applauded Kennedy’s recent focus on what he calls the “chronic disease epidemic” among our children. RFK Jr. points to sharp increases in childhood rates of autism, seasonal and food allergies, asthma, and Type 2 diabetes linked to obesity, which he would fight by improving the safety and nutritional value of the foods that we eat, and by eliminating dangerous man-made chemicals from the environment.
There was also widespread outrage at Trump’s choice of one of his most outspoken supporters, controversial Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, to serve as his Attorney General. Gaetz has been one of the sharpest critics of the pro-Democrat political weaponization of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. against Trump and his supporters. Gaetz has been especially critical of FBI director Christopher Wray for his conduct of the investigation against Trump, and at one point asked Wray whether he was trying to protect the Biden family from criminal prosecution.
Gaetz was also instrumental in the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as the Republican House Speaker in October 2023 for cooperating with Democrats to enable congressional passage of a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown.
MATT GAETZ WOULD BE TRUMP’S REVENGE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
As his attorney general, Trump would expect Gaetz to help him in seeking retribution against the members of the Justice Department and the FBI who have been investigating and prosecuting him, going back to his 2016 presidential campaign when Trump was investigated by the FBI and a special prosecutor based upon bogus accusations that he had colluded with the Russians.
When Trump announced Gaetz’s appointment, which would put him in charge of the Justice Department and its agencies, he also gave the Florida congressman a clear mandate to clean them up. The president-elect wrote, “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan weaponization of our justice system. Matt will end weaponized government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans’ badly shattered faith and confidence in the Justice Department.”
GAETZ IS ALSO FIGHTING ACCUSATIONS OF MISCONDUCT
Much like Trump, Gaetz was subjected to an extended FBI investigation which ended last year in a decision not to prosecute him. But Gaetz’s Democrat and Republican critics claim that the accusations of personal misconduct against him, which were also the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation, whose report has not been released, should disqualify Gaetz from serving as attorney general.
One of Gaetz’s Republican colleagues, Max Miller of Ohio, told the New York Times that he and many other GOP members of Congress believe that the House will become a more functional place without the continued presence of Matt Gaetz. On the other hand, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham described Gaetz to a Times reporter as “smart” and “clever.” Graham also predicted that Gaetz will be facing tough Senate confirmation hearings, where he will have to answer publicly for the scandalous accusations that have been made against him.
PUTTING A DECORATED FORMER MILITARY MAN IN CHARGE OF THE PENTAGON
Trump was also criticized for his selection of Pete Hegseth, a conservative Fox News host and commentator, as the next Secretary of Defense, due to his lack of the prior management experience needed to properly administer the Pentagon and its $841 billion budget. However, Hegseth did serve two tours of duty as a decorated U.S. Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan before he became a Fox News personality. He also has written a book criticizing today’s “woke” senior U.S. military officers for their “betrayal” of this country’s “warriors.”
In Trump’s statement announcing the selection, he lauded Hegseth for his combat experience and continued support for the U.S. military and its veterans. “Pete is tough, smart, and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump said.
TRUMP AND HIS NOMINEE SHARE A LOW OPINION OF SENIOR GENERALS
The president-elect also praised Hegseth’s book, in which he wrote, “The military has long been a place for turning mere boys into fighting men not just by teaching them honor and sacrifice but by channeling daring, building strength, and accumulating skills. The so-called elites directing the military today aren’t just lowering standards and focusing on the wrong enemy; they are overtly working to rid the military of this specific (essential) type of young patriot. They believe power is bad, merit is unfair, ideology is more important than industriousness, white people are yesterday, and safety! is better than risk-taking.”
Trump has said that he is in general agreement with Hegseth’s assessment that, at the lower levels, the U.S. “military is great,” but that at the top, its “woke” leadership is sclerotic, risk-averse, and overly politicized.
PICKING AN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF WHO OPPOSES MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
Another controversial Trump pick was Tulsi Gabbard, a former four-term Democrat Congresswoman from Hawaii, to serve as his Director of National Intelligence (DNI), overseeing 18 government intelligence agencies. Gabbard, who served a tour of duty in Iraq as a U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, was an outspoken critic of the military intervention by the Obama administration in the Syrian civil war, as well as Islamic terrorism elsewhere in the Middle East, because of what she said was a false belief that U.S. military power could resolve overseas crises.
During Gabbard’s failed run for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, campaign, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused her of getting support from Russia. Gabbard denied the accusation and responded by calling Mrs. Clinton the “queen of the warmongers.”
Gabbard gave up her seat in Congress and eventually left the Democrat Party because she said it was beholden to “the foreign policy establishment in Washington,” and overly influenced by “the military-industrial complex.” Gabbard became active in support of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and helped Trump to prepare for his September 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
TRUMP MAY HAVE TO BYPASS THE SENATE CONFIRMATION PROCESS
These controversial Trump appointments have sparked predictions in the mainstream news media of serious difficulties winning Senate confirmation votes for them, and particularly for Matt Gaetz, despite the 53-47 Republican majority in the newly elected Senate.
But the newly elected Republican Senate Majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota, has said that under Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, President Trump could bypass the Senate confirmation process and install his picks unilaterally when the Senate goes into recess. However, such a recess appointment would expire at the end of the current session of Congress in 2026.
“I think that all options are on the table, including recess appointments,” Thune said in a Fox News interview. “Hopefully, it doesn’t get to that but we’ll find out fairly quickly whether the Democrats want to play ball or not. . .
“It’s a question of how much the Democrats resist or object, or try to block those nominations from going forward, [but one way or another] we’re going to grind them out,” Thune promised.
Trump has also said that he may need to use recess appointments, “to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the [confirmation] votes can take two years or more. This is what they [Democrats] did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled immediately!”
TRUMP’S IDEAL FOREIGN POLICY TEAM FOR ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST
By contrast, there has been nothing but praise among supporters of Israel for Trump’s announcement that Florida Senator Marco Rubio will be the next Secretary of State; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel; real estate developer and Trump confidante Steven C. Witkoff as the White House special envoy to the Middle East; and Republican New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In addition, Trump’s pick to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), former Texas Republican congressman and Trump Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, recently told Fox News that Israel deserves praise for going to war against Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and that the U.S. “should be assisting Israel in doing so.”
Matt Brooks, the chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, called Trump’s Middle East policy advisors “a true dream team for those who care about a strong, vibrant, unshakable U.S.-Israel relationship.” That was in contrast to the Biden administration which created “daylight between the U.S. and Israel” by withholding the delivery of heavy bombs and other military aid from Israel in order to pressure it into canceling an attack on the last stronghold of Hamas in the city of Rafah in Gaza.
“Under the Trump team,” Brooks continued, “there will be no daylight, and Israel will be fully supported to do what it needs to do to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah and curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions and support of terror proxies.”
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO PICKED FOR SECRETARY OF STATE
Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio has a strong pro-Israel Senate voting record. He also came out publicly in support of Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu’s position last May, when President Biden was publicly pressuring him not to send Israeli troops into Rafah.
In an interview on Fox News radio, Rubio compared that situation to the choice that Allied forces made to enter Berlin during the final days of World War II.
“We know Adolf Hitler’s in a bunker. We know that he has a gun in his mouth. . . [It would have been unthinkable not] to go in after Hitler, [not to] go destroy Berlin. . . That’s what they’re basically asking Netanyahu and the Israelis to do.”
Rubio currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is the top-ranking Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
In nominating Rubio to become America’s first Latino to serve as secretary of state. Trump said that Rubio would be “a strong advocate for our nation, a true friend to our allies, and a fearless warrior who will never back down to our adversaries.” Rubio responded with a statement which said that he would “work every day” to carry out Mr. Trump’s foreign policy agenda. “Under the leadership of President Trump we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else,” Rubio said.
As the son of Cuban refugees, Rubio advised Trump during his first term as president on U.S. policy toward communist Cuba and Venezuela and has been outspoken in his support of Trump’s position in favor of a more aggressive U.S. stance against China.
AMBASSADOR MIKE HUCKABEE’S DEEP RELIGIOUS SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL
For former Governor Mike Huckabee, who is a Southern Baptist minister, his support for Israel is grounded in his deep evangelical Christian beliefs. He first visited Israel at the age of 18 in 1973, and has led many Christian pilgrimages to Israel in the years since, including one that is scheduled for this coming February.
When Huckabee ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, he declared in a video clip that, “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian [people],” and that the term was invented as a “political tool to try to force land away from Israel.” He also said that any independent Palestinian state should be established within one of the neighboring Arab states like Egypt, Syria, or Jordan — [but] not Israel.
Speaking to CNN at the laying of a cornerstone in a new neighborhood in Maale Adumim in 2017, Huckabee declared, “I think Israel has the title deed to Judea and Samaria.” He then explained that “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation…
RECOGNIZING THE BIBLE AS ISRAEL’S DEED TO THE LAND
More recently Huckabee said, “It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham.
“I want to use [only] terms that live from time immemorial, and those are the terms like ‘Promised Land’ and ‘Judea and Samaria.’ These are biblical terms, and those are important to me.”
When asked whether he might begin to use the phrase “West Bank” while carrying out his official duties as a U.S. ambassador, Huckabee replied, “I can’t be what I’m not. I can’t say something I don’t believe.”
In announcing his selection of Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel on November 12, Trump said, “Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East!”
HUCKABEE HINTS AT U.S. RECOGNITION FOR ANNEXING THE WEST BANK
In his subsequent comments to Israeli Army Radio, Huckabee was careful to remind listeners that “I won’t make the policy. I will carry out the policy of the president.” He then added that “of course” it was possible that Trump might recognize Israel’s annexation of the West Bank at an appropriate time during his second term as president, but insisted that, “Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is Israel’s decision to make.”
In a later interview with Israel National News (Arutz Sheva), Huckabee repeated, “As an ambassador, you don’t get to do what you want. You carry out the wishes and the directions of the president, and it will be his policies, not mine, that we will implement. But I’m very pleased that his policies have been the most pro-Israel policies of any president in my lifetime.”
Huckabee declared that, unlike President Biden, Trump will not stand behind Israel one day and then criticize how Israel fights Hamas the next day. “I can’t imagine how confusing and frustrating that must’ve been to not just the leadership of Israel, but to the people of Israel,” Huckabee said.
“With Donald Trump, there is a certainty in the sound of his voice and the meaning of his message, and I think it’s going to be a very different approach, and one that will show that alliances and having a friend truly mean something, and it’s not inconsistent,” Huckabee added.
He also said that Iran will be “held accountable” for funding terror in the region.
TRUMP’S FORMULA FOR MAKING PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH
“President Trump has strength. He’s got a strong history of making it clear to foreign countries that want to do evil things that they’ll pay a price for it,” the former Arkansas governor said.
“I want to be a part of making sure that the Abraham Accords that [Trump] launched continue to grow — bring more people into those agreements and create a more stable, more peaceful climate in the Middle East, but also a much better and more hopeful future for everyone,” he said.
“[E]verybody wins when there are agreements that foster trade, tourism, business relationships and diplomatic relationships.”
Huckabee explained that he had not been looking for a political appointment from Trump, but accepted this one only because the U.S.-Israel relationship is “incredibly important” to him.
“I have to [do] this because I see it as a calling. An opportunity to do something that I hope will be instrumental in helping to bring a greater level of security and certainty in policy for the people of Israel.”
Huckabee also said that he feels an obligation to make sure that nothing like the Hamas massacre on October 7 ever happens to Israel again.
“[W]hen I came to Israel not too many weeks after that happened — to talk to people who had lived through it, to experience in those kibbutzim what they had gone through — I just asked myself how in the world could we do anything but stand with our Jewish friends in the State of Israel, to make sure they know they will never stand alone,” Huckabee said.
FRIENDS OF ISRAEL CONGRATULATE HUCKABEE
Huckabee’s selection as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel was widely praised by both right-wing Israeli political leaders and most secular American Jewish communal leaders.
Israel’s right-wing finance minister and settler activist, Bezalel Smotrich, wrote on social media that he looked forward to working with Huckabee on “the unquestionable historical belonging of the whole land of Israel to the people of Israel.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, congratulated Mike Huckabee on his selection and noted the critical importance of “the [American] president’s envoy [to Israel] to ensure stalwart U.S.-Israel relations.”
However, the left-wing J Street advocacy group blasted Huckabee’s appointment and said it means that “The mask is off [and] is further proof that ‘pro-Israel’ for Trump is totally disconnected from Jewish values, safety or self-determination.”
INTRODUCING TRUMP’S JEWISH SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST
Trump selected his golfing buddy, Steven Witkoff, as his special envoy to the Middle East, in recognition of Witkoff’s role as the primary liaison to the Jewish community on behalf of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Witkoff was playing a round of golf with Trump at a golf course near his Mar-a-Lago home in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 15, when an alert Secret Service agent discovered an armed assassin waiting to ambush Trump, and sounded the alarm.
According to Witkoff, the turning point for Jewish donations to Trump’s campaign was President Biden’s decision in May to withhold the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel to prevent it from sending troops into Rafah.
“Every one of my friends started calling and asking, ‘What can I do for Donald Trump?’” The result was a flurry of “six-figure and seven-figure donations” for the Trump campaign, Witkoff recalled in a Bulwark podcast.
Witkoff also spoke about his pride sitting in the audience when Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu addressed Congress in July. “It was a privilege to be there,” Witkoff told the Fox Business channel at the time. “We were standing every five seconds because that crowd was so for him and so for the messaging.”
In announcing Witkoff’s appointment as his special envoy for the Middle East, Trump said that “Steve will be an unrelenting voice for peace, and make us all proud.”
CONGRESSWOMAN ELISE STEFANIK TO FILL NIKKI HALEY’S ROLE AT THE U.N.
Trump’s pick of Upper New York State Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has also been warmly greeted by Jewish communal leaders. Stefanik distinguished herself during the congressional hearings into the antisemitic demonstrations, intimidations, and acts of violence against Jewish students on the campuses of several Ivy League colleges following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Due to Stefanik’s blistering criticism of their failure to shut down the demonstrations and protect their Jewish students, several of those Ivy League college presidents were forced to resign in disgrace.
Stefanik is expected to follow the example that was set by Trump’s first-term ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley. The former governor of South Carolina vigorously defended Israel’s rights at the U.N. and condemned the unfair double standard to which Israel has been subjected by many members of the U.N. General Assembly and many of the U.N.’s agencies.
As a member of Congress since 2015, Stefanik compiled a record of strong support for Israel. She also emerged as a key Trump ally for defending the president during his first impeachment trial in the House. Stefanik was recognized as a rising star in the GOP in 2021 when she became the youngest member of the House Republican leadership to be the chair of the House Republican Conference.
While Stefanik has little experience with foreign policy and national security issues, she has gained some valuable perspective from her service as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
JARED KUSHNER TO HELP FROM OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT
Meanwhile, CNN has reported that even though Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who led the American team that negotiated the Abraham Accords, is unlikely to take any formal role in the new Trump administration, he will continue to serve as a key advisor “fully available” to advise the members of Trump’s Middle East policy team. Kushner has also reportedly agreed to share with Trump’s diplomatic team his many contacts with key Middle Eastern leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who are currently doing business with Kushner’s sovereign wealth-based investment fund.
After Trump’s first term as president ended in 2001, Kushner and his wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and their children left Washington D.C., and moved to Miami. They were not active in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, but according to a report by Israel Hayom, Kushner has been helping his father-in-law in the creation of his new administration.
Another high-ranking member of the incoming Trump administration who has committed himself to the support of the U.S.-Israel alliance is Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who called the relationship “an expression of deeper things, of cultural affinity, and shared heritage and values.” Vance has said that he “as a Christian, [like] a majority of citizens of this country,” holds Israel, a “narrow little strip of territory off the Mediterranean,” to be holy, and that “the idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
TRUMP NAMES LEE ZELDIN TO ROLL BACK BIDEN’S EPA REGULATIONS
Among Trump’s more conventional cabinet picks was former Long Island Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin is best known for his unexpectedly strong challenge to the election of New York State’s Democrat Governor, Kathy Hochul, in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Zeldin is expected to help fulfill Trump’s campaign promises to “kill” and “cancel” the Biden-era EPA rules and regulations which would sharply restrict the carbon emissions from fossil fuel-powered vehicles, power plant smokestacks, oil and gas drilling, and pipeline operations throughout the country, and by speeding up the forced transition to electric powered vehicles to counter the alleged threat from global warming.
Trump sees the elimination of these EPA regulations as essential to the realization of America’s potential to become energy-independent once again. That would boost the economy while lowering the cost of energy, and help to roll back inflated consumer prices to pre-Biden era levels.
Trump said that he expects Zeldin to “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” He also wants Zeldin to “set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”
ZELDIN’S MIXED RECORD ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Zeldin had a mixed record on environmental conservation while he was in Congress. He primarily supported measures to protect the hundreds of miles of coastline on the East End of Long Island, and the waters of Long Island Sound which were in his congressional district, such as a bill to prohibit oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
However, Zeldin voted against the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which committed at least $370 billion to subsidize the development of clean energy and the sale of electric vehicles. When Governor Hochul criticized him for that vote, Zeldin responded by explaining that he opposed the Biden-backed measure because, “it raises taxes, adds 87,000 new IRS agents, and spends hundreds of billions of dollars our country doesn’t have on far-left policies our country can’t afford.” In a final dig against Hochul, Zeldin added “I’m not surprised you’d blindly endorse it.”
Zeldin has not publicly stated whether or not he is a believer in the liberal climate change narrative. However, in answer to a question about climate change in a 2014 interview with the Newsday editorial board, Zeldin said, “It would be productive if we could get to what is real and what is not real. I’m not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem [with climate change] as other people are.”
During his 2022 run for governor, Zeldin pledged to reverse New York’s statewide 2015 ban on hydraulic fracturing, called for the construction of more natural gas pipelines to supply cheaper energy to the state’s consumers, as well as the suspension of New York State’s tax on gasoline.
DOUG BURGUM AND CHRIS WRIGHT TO KEEP TRUMP’S FOSSIL FUEL PROMISES
There will be two other members of the new Trump administration’s team working to expand domestic fossil fuel energy production. One will be Doug Burgum who is the governor of North Dakota, the third largest oil-producing state in the nation, who will become Secretary of the Interior Department. The second is Chris Wright, the CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, an oil and natural gas fracking equipment and services firm worth $2.8 billion, who will run the federal Energy Department.
Burgum’s first task will be to roll back the Biden administration regulations which largely shut down the leasing of new domestic oil and gas drilling sites on federal lands across the country and offshore. He will also reopen the oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which the Biden administration declared to be off limits to drilling.
After shutting down his brief bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination late last year, Burgum became a loyal Trump supporter. At a campaign rally in May, Trump said that Burgum “probably knows more about energy than anybody I know.” His name was also reportedly on Trump’s short list of potential vice-presidential running mates before he chose J.D. Vance.
Trump has also asked Burgum to head a new National Energy Council that will coordinate the activities of the multiple federal agencies involved in the permitting, production, and regulation of energy in this country, including the EPA, the Energy Department, the Interior Department, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The council’s goal is to cut the red tape and interagency delays that can hold up the development of new domestic energy sources and liquified natural gas (LNG) ports.
As the new Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright will be in charge of America’s nuclear weapons production facilities, 17 national laboratories, a federal energy loan program, as well as American exports of LNG to our NATO allies in Europe which are needed as a substitute for embargoed Russian energy supplies. During the Biden administration, the Energy Department also took on a leading role in the transition away from domestic fossil-fueled energy sources and towards the development of more wind, solar, nuclear, and other forms of carbon-free energy.
Wright’s first job will be to restart the permitting process for several new American terminals for the export of LNG to Europe that President Biden had frozen as a concession to progressive Democrat green energy activists. Wright will also seek to shut down the Energy Department loans and loan guarantees remaining from the more than $400 billion authorization for new green energy projects that was contained in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Wright will also serve with Burgum as a member of Trump’s new National Energy Council.
EXPOSING CLIMATE CRISIS FALLACIES
Wright first attracted Trump’s attention through his appearances on Fox News as an advocate for the continued U.S. reliance on fossil fuels as a main source of energy. In a video that Wright circulated on the LinkedIn social media site last year, Wright declared that “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”
Wright also believes that greater access to cheap and plentiful imported American oil and natural gas could liberate poor, rural women in developing economies from having to spend hours gathering fuel from much more inefficient local energy sources.
“I’ve been to 55 countries,” Wright said. “Low income, poor rural areas and traditional societies. Those humans have the same hearts and dreams [as we do. They] want to take care of their kids.”
“A third of humanity doesn’t have access to modern energy, and what’s the biggest impediment to that last third of humanity getting energy right now?” he asked. “An irrational and exaggerated fear of climate change.”
When Trump announced Wright’s appointment to head the Energy Department, he called him a “leading technologist and entrepreneur in energy. He has worked in nuclear, solar, geothermal, and oil and gas. Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence, and transformed the global energy markets and geopolitics.” Together with Zeldin, Burgum and Wright will help Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to end the Biden administration’s war on domestic fossil fuels and “drill, baby, drill.” By unleashing American energy companies to produce immense quantities of what Trump calls the “liquid gold” to be found underground and offshore, they will hopefully serve as the key to a new era of American economic prosperity and strategic independence.
Trump also said that his new cabinet fossil fuel energy team of Burgum and Wright “will drive U.S. energy dominance, which will drive down inflation, win the A.I. [Artificial Intelligence] arms race with China (and others) and expand American diplomatic power to end wars all across the world.”
RESTORING ORDER AT THE BORDER AND EXPELLING THE ILLEGAL ALIENS
Trump also named Thomas Homan, who served as a former Border Patrol agent and as the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency during Trump’s first term in 2017, as a new “border czar, in charge of securing the nation’s borders and its maritime and aviation security.”
When Trump announced Homan’s appointment in a post on his Truth Social media platform, he said, “I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”
During a broadcast interview on the CBS news magazine program “60 Minutes,” Homan described the “targeted arrests” and workplace enforcement actions that will be used to implement Trump’s mass deportation plan.
“It’s not OK to enter a country illegally, which is a crime,” Homan said. “That’s what drives illegal immigration, when there’s no consequences.”
Homan will be working with Trump’s first-term advisor, Stephen Miller, to oversee the planned mass deportations. Miller has taken over policy planning for the Trump transition team and is expected to be named as a deputy White House chief of staff, working under Susan Wiles, once Trump is inaugurated in January.
Miller was one of the few members of Trump’s first-term advisory staff who didn’t try to distance themselves from him after the January 6 riot at the Capitol building, closely followed by Trump’s departure from the White House with a dark cloud over his reputation.
Miller continued to advise Trump on messaging and policy and formed the America First Legal Foundation to do legal battle with the Biden administration in the courts. He also continued to make frequent appearances on Fox News in order to defend Trump against his political enemies.
Last year, Miller outlined his detailed plans for Trump’s second-term immigration policies, including the round-up of illegal immigrants already in the United States, and their detention in camps before being expelled from the country.
MUSK AND RAMASWAMY WILL TRY TO REFORM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Finally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will run the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose mission is to institute major cuts and new efficiencies throughout the federal government. According to a written announcement by President Trump, their goal is to institute drastic reforms in the bloated federal bureaucracy by July 4, 2026.
“A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” Trump wrote. “I am confident they will succeed!”
Trump’s statement also said that the new department would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government,” suggesting that Musk will not take a formal role as a federal official, possibly to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest due to the large government contracts with some of the companies that Musk owns, such as Space X.
Musk, who became one of Trump’s biggest campaign contributors, said before the election that he would help Trump cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which amounts to about 30% of current government spending.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said. But he did not explain how those savings would be accomplished or which parts of the federal government would have their current funding slashed.
Immediately after Ramaswamy, a 39-year-old entrepreneur and political novice dropped his own bid for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination, he became a fervent Trump supporter and frequent surrogate on the campaign trail. He also proposed to help Trump cut spending by laying off 75% of the federal government’s workforce of 5 million civilian, military, and postal employees, eliminating the Education Department, the FBI, and the Internal Revenue Service by executive order, and doing away with U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
CAN MUSK AND RAMASWAMY SUCCEED WHERE TRUMP FAILED LAST TIME?
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump also promised the voters that he would “drain the swamp” in Washington, by making drastic cuts in the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy, but proved to be unable to make any significant progress in fulfilling those promises.
Now Trump is hoping that Musk and Ramaswamy will be able to succeed where he failed the first time. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the federal bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans,” Trump wrote. “Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual 6.5 trillion dollars of government spending.”
But it remains unclear how Trump and his colleagues can achieve the promised savings without the cooperation of Congress, which is very unlikely, or creating a public uproar over the necessary cuts to the entitlement programs such as Social Security retirement benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as military spending and interest on the existing national debt which, all together, make up the bulk of current federal spending.
But even if their joint efforts to cut federal spending inevitably fall far short of their ambitious goal, it will be a welcome first effort to deal with the country’s chronic overspending which simply cannot continue much longer without seriously damaging America’s economy.
COMPARING TRUMP’S PICKS TO BIDEN’S
Some of Trump’s picks may seem to be a bit wacky, like RFK Jr., or totally outrageous and in your face, like Matt Gaetz. But despite their faults, the people he has chosen so far, are much better qualified than the people that Joe Biden chose for his top cabinet posts and as his vice president.
Consider for example Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, who lied to the American people for more than three years by denying the existence of a crisis at the open southern border while it was being overrun by millions of potentially dangerous illegal immigrants.
Then there is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who was more concerned about imposing his liberal “woke” priorities and climate change policies on the Pentagon than national security. When Austin went AWOL for weeks without notifying his Pentagon staff, nobody seemed to notice the difference.
Biden’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, took off several weeks for maternity leave while the nation was going through a major transportation crisis.
Then there is Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. He qualified for the post by persuading more than 50 former American intelligence officials to sign onto a letter that falsely claimed that the evidence of wrongdoing found on Hunter Biden’s laptop was the result of a Russian disinformation plot. That letter then resulted in the mainstream media’s censorship of the New York Post’s story about the laptop, which probably enabled Biden to narrowly defeat Trump in the 2020 presidential election a couple of weeks later.
They were typical of the Biden administration’s officials, political hacks chosen primarily for their leftist ideological conformity rather than their governing abilities and accomplishments.
REALIGNING GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO MEET AMERICA’S NEEDS
They are now in the process of being replaced by Trump, one by one, with capable people of the type he said he would. Trump’s picks are ready and willing to shake up the dysfunctional liberal policies of the Biden administration, restore the former strength of the U.S. military, defend America’s vital foreign and national interests, as well as Israel, its most loyal ally in the Middle East, while disregarding the warnings and criticisms from Trump’s Democrat opponents and their allies in the mainstream media.
Trump and the most loyal and well-qualified individuals he has chosen are already well on their way to fulfilling the promises that he made to his expanded coalition of working-class and conservative voters to realign the federal government’s policies to better meet their long-neglected needs.
More power to them.
