Trump and his Cabinet (Part I)

The first complaint about the Trump cabinet is it is too militarized with three generals. General James Mattis will lead the Secretary of Defense; General John Kelly will head Homeland Security; and General Michael Flynn will be Trump’s national security adviser. That is novel concept: placing successful generals in positions to oversee our national defense. Trump has no experience in national security, so generals are needed and it makes sense. The liberal idea that generals are war mongers is wrong. Twelve US Presidents were Generals: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pearce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and Dwight Eisenhower. And for the most part they led America in times of peace. All but fourteen presidents had military experience. Generals have seen the horrors of war and they want to avoid it at all costs. George Washington did not go to war against the Barbary Nations or England for their crimes against American merchant ships. However, non-military minded Thomas Jefferson and James Madison did fight both the Barbary Nations and England (War of 1812). William McKinley did not want to go to war against Spain even after the sinking of the USS Maine in Cuba. He wanted proof that it was not an accident. Meanwhile, future president and assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, called McKinley weak with no spine. McKinley fought all four years of the Civil War. McKinley enlisted as a private and retired as a major. He fought at several of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War (Second Bull Run and Antietam). McKinley did not want war because he witnessed firsthand the horrors of war. Roosevelt, on the other hand, had not witnessed war and was a war monger. John Kelly lost his son in war. Kelly, Mattis, and Flynn have each seen the horrors of war and would be more prudent and practical than those who have not served in the military.

The second complaint about the Trump cabinet is that he is appointing people to lead agencies they loath and have hostility towards. Scott Pruitt who will lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and will scale back job killing regulations. Betsy DeVoss will lead the Department of Education and push for “school choice” and “vouchers” in an effort to equalize educational opportunities for all children regardless of socioeconomic status. Tom Price will lead the Department of Health and Human Services by repealing and replacing ObamaCare. Andrew Puzder will head the Labor Department but he does not believe in a 15 dollar minimum wage. Ben Carson will the Department of Housing and Urban Development and he has no practical experience (other than growing up poor in an inner city). Liberals think since Trump cabinet selections do not believe in big government expansion and increased power of their agency then they must be hostile towards the agency. In other words, having a different approach to governance must mean they hate the agencies that they lead. This is a very narrow and limited point of view of the Left.

The third complaint about the Trump cabinet is he is appointing too many Washington insiders (Trump supporters do not like this) or too many outsiders (Liberals do like this). Trump cannot win no matter what he does. That being said, Trump has been wise to mix insiders and outsiders. Insiders are needed because they know the ins and outs of governance which is needed for success. Still, avid Trump supporters Giuliani, Christie, and Gingrich did not get jobs in the Cabinet proving Trump is against cronyism and is more about putting the right person in the job.

The fourth complaint about the Trump cabinet is his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is too cozy with Russia and Putin. According to liberals, Russian “hacking” is the reason why Clinton lost the election. It certainly could not be because Clinton was a highly flawed candidate and the leaked emails confirmed that. Now, liberals can understand how conservatives feel about how the biased media covers candidates and elections. In 2008, the media made up the story that McCain had an affair. In 2012, they made up the story that Romney did not pay taxes. In 2016, liberal media sources hired over 1000 investigators to find dirt on Trump. The media falsely reported Melania Trump was an illegal immigrant and worked as an escort. It is not fair, the media is supposed to be impartial bystanders but that is far from the truth. I am not in favor of outside influence in our elections, but this is karma. Liberals are receiving a tough lesson (but it will not change how the media does its job). However, there is a big difference between the supposed Russian hacking and the liberal media when it comes to elections: Russian hacking exposed the truth and the liberal media lies and fabricates stories. Why didn’t Russian hacking intervene against Trump? They did not have to, the media was already attacking him unfairly (compared to Clinton). And maybe Russian interference was not about helping Trump win, but to make Clinton a weaker president. This makes the most sense since polling had Clinton ahead comfortably.