One of Donald Trump's endlessly repeated promises was that he was going to appoint his Cabinet and staff from the private sector. Mr. Trump was very specific about not appointing from the political sector. A main theme of his campaign was that he answered to nobody and therefore was under obligation to nobody. A second theme was to unify America.
So now he's been elected, and the American people --- such as the 60+ million people who voted for him --- have no further say in what he says or does. With that in mind he's begun to list the candidates for his White House staff and Cabinet. Here are a few of them, with annotations:
Chief of Staff: Reince Priebus: Priebus is the head of the Republican National Committee. While technically he hasn't held a government office, he's still the voice of the Republican Party, and as chair of the RNC, and that means he's about as into politics as anybody can be.
Chief Strategist: Steve Bannon. The former chief of ult-right Breitbart, Bannon is known for his White Supremacist (e.g. racist), misogynist, and Antisemitic support. Appointing an extremist as his senior counsel is hardly the way to unify a country.
Secretary of State: Bob Corker and Newt Gingrich are the top choices. Corker has 15 years in politics, 10 as Senator, and Gingrich has about 30 years in politics, including as Speaker of the House. So much for the private sector there.
Secretary of the Treasury: Steven Mnuchin, a multimillionaire trader with Goldman Sachs and Dune Capital. Mnuchin doesn't have any service in politics, outside of being involved in the Romney and Trump campaigns.
Secretary of Defense: The top choice is Senator Jeff Sessions, a 20-year veteran of the Senate.
Attorney General: Top choice is Rudy Giuliani, who has been involved in politics one way or the other for at least 30 years. Another choice, who will end up SOMEWHERE in the Trump Administration, is Chris Christie, who has been involved in the political sector since 2002, 7 years as Governor of New Jersey.
Secretary of the Interior: Trump's son Donald Jr. has been one suggestion (nepotism anybody?). Another choice is Sarah Palin, who has been in politics in one form or another since 1992 (24 years).
Secretary of Agriculture: Among many names is Texas Secretary of Agriculture Sid Miller, who tweeted a few days ago that Hillary Clinton was "a c---t." Others include governor Brownback (Kansas) and former governors Heineman (Nebraska), Perdue (Georgia) and Rick Perry (Texas).
Secretary of Commerce: Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is one choice for the job. Others include Christie and Mike Huckabee (14+ years in politics).
Most of the other Cabinet and agency positions have individuals from the private sector as main choices, but with so many political cronies to take care of --- and most of the above were involved in Trump's campaign, were vocal supporters, were key advisers, or were donors to Trump Super-Pacs.
So much for the promise to appoint from the private sector. That one went down the sewer in favor of nepotism and political back-scratching. The list is a Who's Who of high-profile politicians, cronies and at least one relative.
Did you REALLY think that Trump would keep all of his campaign promises? Those were said to get him elected. Now that he's past that hurdle, he can do mostly as he pleases.
Tomorrow's column will deal with another promise that Mr. Trump is going to renege on. In the meantime, plan on "the outsider" having an Administration full of political elitists and the wealthy, with few or no selections from the common people who elected him.
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