If These Are the Best People

Ever since Trump started his run for the presidency back in 2015 he has claimed that he hires only “the best people”. He showed that to be a lie last time he won and his recently named nominees for various posts show no sign of improvement and may even be worse.

Last week Trump announced that Matt Gaetz, who was elected to represent Florida’s 1st Congressional District located in the panhandle next to Alabama and which encompasses Pensacola Naval Air Station, as his Attorney General nominee, the person who will oversee the entire Department of Justice. Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Christian legal ministry Liberty Counsel in Orlando, wrote a scathing argument titled “Matt Gaetz is not qualified to be U.S. Attorney General.”

Staver’s letter says, “The nomination of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is shocking and disappointing to those who have followed this man and the lurid scandals and serious allegations of sex parties and drugs during his tenure in the U.S. Congress. The resignation of Gaetz immediately after his name surfaced for Attorney General is inexplicable except for the fact this resignation now ends the U.S. House Ethics probe.”

Trump’s defense secretary pick, Fox News host Pete Hegseth,  is troubling for a number of reasons. Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in a settlement agreement that included a confidentiality clause, according to Hegseth’s attorney. Sexual mis-conduct seems to be one of the themes of Trump and his new team.

Hegseth has admitted to being one of 12 U.S. National Guard members were removed from Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration security detail as a "possible insider threat" after vetting by the U.S. military and FBI. Hegseth downplays the issue claiming his removal was over a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross, when in fact the sergeant charged with reviewing the security team wrote that Deux Vult tattoo which has ties to extremist groups was the reason. According to Robert LeBlanc of Villanova University, the Deus Vult symbol is "actively being used by neo-Nazi and extremist hate groups to incite fear and violence toward other cultures and religions."

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Hegseth could make good on Trump's campaign promises to rid the U.S. military of generals he accuses of pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that conservatives have railed against. This is especially problematic because we already have problems in our armed services with commanding officers demanding their subordinates attend their particular religious services and events even though it is specifically prohibited by regulations. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation run by Mickey Weinstein a former officer exists to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces are able to practice their religious beliefs without fear of discrimination or coercion, and to promote the separation of church and state within the military.

Finally there is Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation's most well-known anti-vaccine activist. Doctors all over the United States, especially pediatricians are worried by about this choice as the country is already seeing a drop in vaccination rates leading to more measles outbreaks this year than last year and a five-fold increase in whooping cough cases this year from the year before, according to Centers for Disease Control data.

If these people are the best Trump can do our nation is in for a load of trouble.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 20, 2024