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On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump<\/strong> will become the president of the United States for a second time despite, among other things, suggesting Americans ingest bleach in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and inspiring a violent attack on the Capitol that left multiple people dead. The first time Trump was in office, his Cabinet included relatively mainstream Republicans\u2014like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross<\/strong> and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.<\/strong> Many of the individuals he put in top advisory roles\u2014such as retired Marine Corps general John Kelly<\/strong> as White House chief of staff and former Goldman Sachs president and CEO Gary Cohn<\/strong> as National Economic Council director\u2014also had relevant experience. But this time around, Trump is expected to almost exclusively hire people from the far-right whose number one qualification is total loyalty to him.<\/p>\n Speaking to Fox News shortly after the election, Donald Trump Jr.,<\/strong> who is \u201cheavily involved on the transition,\u201d indicated<\/a> that he was focused on installing people who won\u2019t speak up if they disagree with his dad, saying he is looking to staff the administration with individuals who \u201cdon\u2019t think that they know better than the duly elected president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n The most powerful and coveted gigs are obviously Cabinet positions, which technically require Senate approval. However, many served in \u201cacting\u201d capacities<\/a> during Trump\u2019s term, allowing them to get around that requirement. In addition, Trump has demanded<\/a> that Senate Republicans let him bypass the confirmation process altogether by agreeing to \u201crecess appointments.\u201d That scares the hell<\/a> out of at least one staunch conservative, but it doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen!<\/p>\n So far, Trump\u2019s Cabinet nominees include:<\/p>\n Less than two weeks after Trump nominated<\/a> Gaetz to lead the Justice Department\u2014despite almost no experience working as an actual attorney, and persistent allegations of sexual misconduct\u2014Gaetz announced he was dropping out<\/a> of the confirmation process. In a statement, the former congressman\u00a0said<\/a> it had become \u201cclear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump\/Vance Transition\u201d and that \u201cthere is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cdistraction\u201d in question concerned allegations that Gaetz had paid women for sex and had sex with a minor. While a Justice Department investigation into the matter had been dropped, and Gaetz had denied all wrongdoing, the House Committee on Ethics, which had conducted its own probe into the accusations, was set to release a report on its findings before Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as attorney general. Despite calls from many Democrats and some Republicans to do so, the ethics panel voted against releasing the report.<\/p>\n Fun fact<\/strong>: It\u2019s not clear where Gaetz goes from here, given that he resigned from his seat in Congress. Among the potential possibilities: run for his old seat in the special election to fill it; take a job with Trump that does not require confirmation; become a host on Newsmax or Fox.<\/p>\n There may be something more terrifying than Matt Gaetz running the Justice Department\u2014and it’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the nation\u2019s health. As Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy would have power over numerous health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Health Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. What are Kennedy\u2019s qualifications for the job? Well, he doesn\u2019t have any\u2014he\u2019s not a doctor and he\u2019s never run a massive bureaucracy with thousands of employees and a nearly $2 trillion budget. He is, however, a rabid anti-vaxxer<\/a> whose misinformation has been blamed for helping to cause a measles outbreak that killed 83 people<\/a>; he\u2019s\u00a0suggested<\/a>\u00a0that chemicals in the environment can make children gay and trans; and he once claimed<\/a> \u201cCovid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people,\u201d and spare \u201cAshkenazi Jews and Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n Fun fact:<\/strong> Kennedy\u2019s most famous cousin, JFK daughter Caroline Kennedy,<\/strong> has called<\/a> his vaccine views \u201cdangerous.\u201d In 2019, three of his relatives, including two of his siblings, wrote\u00a0an op-ed<\/a>\u00a0titled \u201cRFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He\u2019s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n Where to start with this one? Here are some random facts about the man Trump wants to put in charge of America\u2019s domestic investigative agency. In 2018 he drafted<\/a> a memo attempting to undermine the Russia investigation into the then president. Between 2022 and 2024, he published a series of children\u2019s books<\/a> in which Trump is depicted as a king, while the villains are \u201cHillary Queenton,\u201d \u201cSleepy Joe,\u201d and \u201cComma-la-la-la.\u201d In 2023 he released a memoir called Government Gangsters,<\/em> which calls for purging government employees who were not sufficiently loyal to Trump. (Many individuals are singled out<\/a> by name<\/a>.) He sells pro-Trump merchandise under his \u201cK$H\u201d brand<\/a>. He\u2019s promoted dietary supplements that he claims will detox the body from the COVID vaccine, writing<\/a>, \u201cOrder this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax.\u201d In a podcast interview with Stephen Bannon<\/strong> last year, Patel declared<\/a>: \u201cYes, we\u2019re gonna come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden<\/strong> rig presidential elections. We\u2019re going to come after you, whether it\u2019s criminally or civilly\u2014we\u2019ll figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nMatt Gaetz,<\/strong>\u00a0Attorney General (Just kidding!)<\/h2>\n
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,<\/strong> Health and Human Services Secretary<\/h2>\n
Kash Patel,<\/strong> FBI Director<\/h2>\n