Team Trump: An Unholy Gathering of Liars, Dimwits & Lackeys

Cabinet picks, security advisors, political appointees, oh my!

“... President Trump said the No. 1 goal for the Senate needs to be to get his team in place. I’ve met with just about all of them. I support every one of these nominees.”

–Sen. John Barasso on “Face the Nation,” 1/12/25

Like all other presidents, Trump has the right to staff his administration with people who will help him run the government. Think Cabinet members, heads of federal agencies, ambassadors, advisors, that sort of thing. In theory, Trump’s administration should support and strengthen the government. In reality, Trump’s team is more likely to help him take it apart.

While Trump crowed about the shock and awe that Day One will bring, within days after the election, people who hadn’t clicked off the news were already there. That’s when he began announcing the names of the people he wanted in key leadership positions. And these picks were not pretty. 

Trump’s Fantasy Team

There was the guy with the dead worm in his brain, the dog killer, Putin’s girlfriend, the ex-fiancée of his son, the alleged pedophile and the (other) alleged sexual assaulter. The list goes on.

Why should we care who Trump selects? The dead worm guy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services) is not just a vocal anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist. In 2019 he went to Samoa to meet with anti-vaxxers calling for people to skip the measles vaccine. As a result, vaccination rates plummeted, and five months later Samoa declared a measles emergency. Eighty-three people, many of them children, died of a disease that was almost eradicated by vaccinations.

Or take Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump wants as his Director of National Intelligence. She would be the person in charge of coordinating information from intelligence agencies – a position created after 9/11 to assist the president in defending the homeland and making crucial national security decisions. But her past actions include secretly meeting with former Syrian president Assad and spreading Russian propaganda.

If confirmed by the Senate, Tulsi will be more likely to do the business of dictators on our enemies list than the business of keeping Americans safe.

Why Did Trump Do This?*

If you answered “All of the above,” you’re already plotzing because you know that Trump wants to staff his administration with billionaires, election deniers, and the absolute worst person for the job who just so happens to be the best person to dismantle the social structures of our government.

The Bottom Line

Trump’s individual choices for his administration threaten every American’s security, health and safety on a daily basis. When catastrophe strikes, the country will have incompetent, ideologically driven people leading the charge. The devastation of the Los Angeles fires provide a perfect but tragic window into the future.

More broadly, a president’s administration advances their policies, priorities, and agenda. As always, Trump’s priorities have nothing to do with the needs of the American people but with himself. He wants to make himself a dictator-president and transform our nation into his own fiefdom, based on false Christian values and the elevation of rich white men and bros.

What Can You Do?

• Blast the hell out of DemCast’s social media posts calling out the incompetency of Trump’s nominees. This toolkit has ready-made posts that work across all platforms. 

• Call your senators (202-224-3121) to let them know you are a voter and demand they vote against Trump’s nominees.

• Subscribe to this newsletter - The Digital Drumbeat - to keep up-to-date on what’s going during the first 100 days and beyond.

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*Why does Trump do anything? This is truly a question for the ages. It’s impossible to know because he lies all the time. Further, most of what he does seems to be because he is an immoral, vindictive asshole.