Trump’s Cabinet of Horrors - WhoWhatWhy Trump’s Cabinet of Horrors - WhoWhatWhy

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Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, rally
Stephen Miller speaking at a Donald Trump rally in Phoenix, AZ. Photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Gage Skidmore / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The vetting process for members of the next Trump administration will be incredibly easy: 1. Was the 2020 Election stolen? 2. What are you prepared to do about it?

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Whenever an election looms, there’s always the question of who will be filling key positions. Invariably, some pundit will come up with a list of who would be the worst choice to fill certain jobs — for example, Jeffrey Epstein as Secretary of Education. Generally, of course, most of these worst-case scenarios do not come to pass. However, that may change a year from now.

In 2016, when Donald Trump was a political novice, many people took some comfort in the fact that the newly elected president surrounded himself with many so called adults in the room, i.e., seasoned hands who would talk Trump out of potentially catastrophic mistakes. However, if he were to be reelected, it seems very clear that this type of parental oversight would no longer be desired. 

According to new reporting from Axios, there are now only two criteria that matter: total allegiance to Trump and a willingness to bend the rules. The list that the news outlet has compiled reads like a Who’s Who of MAGA crackpots, from Tucker Carlson or Marjorie Taylor Greene as potential vice presidential picks to white nationalist ghoul Stephen Miller as attorney general.  While that’s not a team to run a country with, it is the perfect group of people to assemble to go after any real or perceived political enemies, both in the US and abroad. 

More than anything, the list shows what a second Trump term would be all about: pursuing grievances and settling scores. Any “adult in the room” would just get in the way of that. To be honest, we are feeling a sense of morbid curiosity to find out what this rag tag bunch of right wing nut jobs would come up with on any given day. It’s like a streaming service decided to shoot another season or two of a once-popular series, and all the fan favorites back, like Kari Lake, Steve Bannon, and, of course, Jared Kushner starring as “the son-in-law.”   

It also doesn’t matter which jobs they would hold in a Trump administration since they would not be hired for their qualifications, just their allegiance. And while all this may sound highly entertaining, and it probably would be, there’s no telling the kind of serious damage an unchecked Trump could do when surrounded by sycophants. 

One thing is for sure — it would definitely make the vetting process, which has tripped up some previous Trump appointees, much easier. 

“Who won the 2020 election?” 

“Donald Trump, of course.” 

“You’re hired. Do you want to be CIA director?”

It’s not outside the realm of possibility that someone might be elevated from Mar-A-Lago groundskeeper to a cabinet position just because he has nice things to say about Trump. 

In any case, all those guard rails that barely contained Trump and his worst impulses during his first term would no longer exist as of January 20, 2025. 

If you’re interested in running a federal agency, we suggest getting booked on Fox News right now.

Author

  • Klaus Marre

    Klaus Marre is a senior editor for Politics and director of the Mentor Apprentice Program at WhoWhatWhy. Follow him on Twitter @KlausMarre.

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