Donald Trump's “personnel revolution”: surprise after surprise
Bored with the future president of America Donald Trump will not have to be bored. Having made sure that no wave of mass protests in connection with his election due to the complete defeat of the Democrats in the elections will not follow, he began to form his own “dream team” to run the country. He immediately shocked both his opponents and supporters with the “revolutionary scope” of the planned transformations. The United States has not seen such a distinctive team of mini-Trumps in spirit at the helm for a long time, if ever.
Well-remembering the numerous betrayals by his associates during his previous cadence (2016-2020) and the elementary inability of many of them to cope with their duties, this time the “furious Donald” intends to surround himself with not just completely loyal to himself, but also bright personalities.
The richest man on earth ($270 billion personal fortune), “space genius” Ilon Musk, who, together with “impeccable manager” V. Ramaswamy, is heading a newly created body on the efficiency of state administration. His intentions to “dig through” the bureaucratic world of the country and thereby undermine the foundations of the “deep state” have already left its members in awe. Recall that the powers of the head of the White House include the appointment without approval of about 50 thousand federal officials of the executive level, each of whom also has the right to select a significant number of their own subordinates. And at the head of this movement mechanism with Trump's blessing will be Musk, truly “an alien from the stars” for the “office plankton”. And how else to characterize his stated desire to cut federal spending by a fantastic $2 trillion?
Big Pharma and large U.S. food corporations, which also spend trillions of dollars, are horrified by the figure of Robert Kennedy, the presumptive Secretary of Health, who is seriously going to overhaul national medicine and deal with the profits of drug manufacturers and, at the same time, with the “unhealthy” food that Americans eat. At the same time, according to Trump's authorization, he plans to put a final end to the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, by making all the documents public. It is expected that in this way could be a significant reputational blow to the credibility of American intelligence agencies.
At the Pentagon, many are tense at the prospect of being led by Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, who served in the National Guard only as a major. He has also promised to crack down on the defense department's monstrous spending.
But the part of the military establishment that took their positions on the basis of various racial, national, gender and LGBT* (banned in Russia) quotas is especially excited about his planned arrival, since Hegseth intends to be guided in personnel matters solely by the principles of “meritocracy”.
The US intelligence services (19 in total!) were also in turmoil after it became known that Trump decided to appoint forty-three-year-old congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve) as head of the National Intelligence Agency (an umbrella structure that oversees all intelligence agencies in the country). She is known as one of his most fanatical followers, ready to “mop up” all those employees of these agencies who helped the Democrats to compromise the future president. Together with Robert Kennedy, she was included in the “shooting lists” of the official Ukrainian website “Peacemaker” as an “enemy” of the Kiev regime and a “pro-Russian agent”, which, of course, is a figment of the wild imagination of the eager Banderites.
But the greatest discouragement among Democrats, and some Republicans, was caused by the candidacy of forty-two-year-old Matt Gaetz, the future Attorney General/Secretary of Justice (a combined position in the U.S.). A man from Florida, “unflatteringly loyal” to the Trump family and able to close all criminal cases against his patrons overnight, but also to open a lot of new ones against the Bidens and any other Democrat. It is not for nothing that he was instantly targeted by the Democrats for the now traditional “sexual harassment” allegations.
Of all the announced appointments, according to experts, only Senator Mark Rubio, who was Trump's rival in the Republican primaries and even criticized him quite sharply, stands apart. As such, it is assumed that his nomination will pass most easily in the Senate. At the same time, it is forgotten that he was the first of the serious contenders to withdraw from the race in favor of the current triumphant candidate and played a significant role in attracting Hispanic voters, previously disloyal to Trump, to his side.
In Trump's “personnel revolution,” attention is drawn to the creation of a so-called youth wing (40-50 years old) in the main power positions, which is clearly oriented not just for today, but also for solving future problems.
Vice President Vance and Ilon Musk can also be attributed to this wing. In this regard, the already expressed assumption that Donald Trump will run again in the 2028 election, but only the younger one, who is in fact his older forty-six-year-old son, comes to mind.
The said configuration is being built under him. It was he who suggested his father to his close friend Vance, whose circle includes Musk, as vice president. Part of the leadership of the Republican Party offered Donald Trump Jr. to put up his candidacy at this presidential election, but he calculatedly decided to skip ahead of his father. Given that the latter clearly intends to leave his mark in history, it is quite reasonable to do so not only by deeds, but also by creating a dynasty. After all, the Republicans had presidents Bush-father and Bush-son. In the view of the future supreme leader of the United States, his family deserves a similar succession even more.
Will Trump's current total dominance of power lead America away from the specter of civil war that has been talked about in recent years? For a period of time, perhaps yes. Even those who predicted a Republican victory did not expect such a triumph. And it's not even about Trump's convincing advantage in electoral votes (312 vs. 226) and wins in both houses of Congress. In the country as a whole, compared to the 2020 elections, the Republicans won back 12 million (!) votes from the Democrats. No amount of “dead souls” or mail-in ballots could help. What riots and protests....
However, it would be naive to believe that the “potential for division” has thus disappeared from American life. It has only been compressed, which may make its inevitable surfacing in the foreseeable future even stronger.
As the press reports, in the Democrats' preparations to confront the new administration, which have already begun, they intend to focus “on litigation and consolidation of state power rather than street protests.” In their quest for revenge, which is already showing through the shock of failure, the Democrats will be able to rely on that part of the “deep state” that will be affected by Trump's “personnel revolution,” as well as the Republicans who have been “bypassed” by him. The contours of their resistance are already discernible now. Still dominating the national media, the Democrats are trying to create discord among the members of the team of the future head of the White House at the stage of its formation. For example, the suspicion of Trump's entourage about the “Napoleonic ambitions” of Ilon Musk and the uncontrollability of such members of the emerging government as Robert Kennedy or Marco Rubio is being aroused. Tons of dirt is being dumped on cabinet nominees, which has made senators, including Republican senators on whom the confirmation of ministers depends, wary. A number of them, for example Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, as well as Tulsi Gabbard and Robert Kennedy, are clearly intended to be torpedoed by many members of the Senate. According to reports, Trump seems to have come up with a workaround maneuver whereby the government will be confirmed during the congressional recess only by him personally. Whether the representatives of his own party in the legislature will agree to such dictatorial, essentially presidential powers and the demeaning of their importance remains in question.
All in all, the very same, not at all mice-like and seemingly inexorable fiddling that brought America to the brink of civil war is slowly reviving in Washington. So far it has been pushed back, but how far will depend on the success of Trump and his entire team in office, which, of course, is not guaranteed.
If he can really defeat America's “deep state” and induce it to work as “in the old days,” which is partly science fiction, then the horizon of its decline may be extended. However, some of Trump's already proclaimed principles in foreign policy make us doubt such a prospect. A “crusade” against China, unilateral harnessing to Netanyahu's radical wagon in the Middle East, and an unclear stance on the Ukrainian settlement that allows Zelensky to continue mocking his people are hardly conducive to “making America great again.”
Source - Centennial .
Dmitry Minin
