Donald Trump’s administration had by far the highest rate of turnover in recent history. Four years later, the list of former Trump staffers unwilling to endorse him for another term is equally astounding.
But Trump insists it’ll go better if he gets back into the Oval Office. As The Hill reports, Trump insists he now knows the “good ones, the bad ones, the weak ones, the smart ones, the dumb ones.” And he knows the “right” people to put in charge of the nation.
Trump may pretend he knows nothing of Project 2025, but his insistence on getting the most loyal people into the most important slots certainly sounds as if he got the key takeaway.
However, the choices Trump has been making so far cause Trump’s idea of “right“ to seem seriously wrong. Take the potential for putting an anti-vax conspiracy theorist in charge of the nation’s health care, for instance, or a promise to put a guy who absolutely wrecked his last investment at the wheel of remaking the government.
Some of Trump’s potential bad choices are still speculation. That includes deep concern over the idea that Trump could install Kash Patel as attorney general.
Patel, the author of two children’s books that cast Trump as a valorous king and himself as a wise wizard, has remade himself in Trump’s image during a rapid rise from low-level aide to top Trump lieutenant. Now there are reports that he might put aside his “K$H” brand and dubious charity work to provide Trump with the weaponized Justice Department he’s always wanted.
Still, the potential selection of Patel is just that—potential. The same goes for other terrifying suggestions about how Trump might fill out the ranks of his Cabinet.
But there are two choices Trump has already made, and those should be enough to convince anyone that his decision-making skills have only gone downhill over the last eight years.
After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he was ending his role as a spoiler to embrace Trump, Trump swiftly made Kennedy the co-chair of his transition team. To discuss his new role, Kennedy appeared with Nazi-lover Tucker Carlson.
“I’ve been asked to go on the transition team, you know, and to help pick the people who will be running the government,” Kennedy told Carlson.
As The Hill reports, there is growing concern that one of those picks might be putting Kennedy in charge of Health and Human Services. That alarm only increased after Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s former running mate, made a statement suggesting that the choice had already been made and that Kennedy would do “an incredible job” at HHS if Trump returns to power.
Putting a notorious anti-vax conspiracy theorist who is directly responsible for health disasters around the world in charge of the nation’s health might seem as bad as it could get, but it runs neck and neck with another of Trump’s already-announced personnel decisions.
On Thursday, Trump announced that he would create a “government efficiency commission” and place billionaire Elon Musk in charge. As the Associated Press reports, Trump said the commission would recommend “drastic reforms” that he claimed would save trillions of dollars. Presumably, Musk would slot that task in among the six companies where he already plays part-time CEO when not busy spreading Russian propaganda.
But before anyone cheers the idea of Musk determining what parts of government aren’t necessary, they might want to take a look at his latest $44 billion investment. Musk bragged about eliminating 80% of X’s (formerly Twitter) staff. But in the process he has destroyed more than 60% of the company’s value and turned it into both a “sewer of disinformation” planted by foreign governments and a Nazi-laden cesspool.
Those achievements may sound attractive to Trump. They’re not likely to please anyone else.
Trump is clearly following the Project 2025 playbook for purging the government of anyone who has experience, knowledge, and concern about the laws or Constitution. We don’t know how bad his personnel choices might be if he were to actually win, but we’re certainly getting a preview with what he’s said about Kennedy and Musk.
