With each inauguration comes a new wave of federal leaders and cabinet members, and much like most shifts in administration, the American people are confronted with both unfamiliar and fatally familiar faces.
As of writing this, there has only been one confirmation in the senate out of the 22 nominees that require a confirmation, with Marco Rubio, former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, being the only firm confirmation. While a fair amount of the nominations appear to be qualified, there are some notable exceptions. According to the Associated Press, four of the nominees were substantial donors to the Trump campaign and two nominees were media personalities. With the nominations coming in, there is one question that must be asked: How did it become okay to have such a blatantly obvious spoils system?
When looking at former president Biden’s cabinet it was hard to find a place where there was not a logical continuation of a previous position. The opposite seems to be true in the second cabinet of Trump, with the appointment of Pete Hegseth to the position of Secretary of Defense.
When Pete Hegseth was asked by the Democratic Senator of Illinois about the ASEAN, a Southeast Asian agreement, and how many nations were in ASEAN, Hegseth responded with “I couldn’t tell you the exact amount of nations… but I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan…”. However, this statement is factually inaccurate. Southeast Asia does not include, and has never included, South Korea or Japan.
While it is true that many Americans could not tell you a lick of information about ASEAN, this lack of knowledge from Pete Hegseth is indefensible. Hegseth is not being nominated to be a regular American, he is being nominated to be the Secretary of Defense, a position that requires knowledge about international agreements. Even further, Pete Hegseth has been overcome with allegations and affidavits regarding improper conduct, ranging from abusing his wife to passing out in strip clubs. Americans should not be interested in having a media personality shrouded in dramatics as their Secretary of Defense.
Furthermore, Pete Hegseth is far from the only controversial candidate to be nominated for the presidential cabinet. Nominated to lead the Department of Education is former administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon. While she has had some true work in the field of education, her (not so humble) beginnings stem from her and her husband’s co-founded business, the WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment. Both Linda McMahon and her husband Vince McMahon followed Vince McMahon’s father into wrestling entertainment, founding the WWE. During her time as the CEO of WWE, she stepped down twice to run for public office, losing each time. She has since served one year on the Connecticut Board of Education and years on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University. She is an advocate for school choice, known more commonly as the school voucher program. It would be unfortunate for one to say that they don’t ask for much within the cabinet, because in truth they should want a lot. They should want somebody whose status as a billionaire donor is not the reason for appointment. They should want somebody who shows a clear set of qualifications, who has spent more than one year on a board of education. Truly qualified secretaries are what the people of the United States deserve, not just those who were picked for their generosity to the campaign, or their yes-man nature.
At the end of the day, the status of the cabinet has some highly qualified candidates, but it is ruined by the few whose qualifications are wealth or publicity. Even further, it pushes one to think about those who are highly qualified who could have potentially done wonders for America in all of our fields, and instead we promote the wealthy whose only perspective is just that, being wealthy. When, within these short four years, America is treated to dysfunction in the bureaucracy, there will be very little surprise. In the future, it is paramount that when electing officials the people in America evaluate how they will choose their cabinet. Even further, when there are massive conflicts of ethics such as in this case, the people must unite to demand the changes that are deserved.
