The Maga movement cheered on as Donald Trump chose his cabinet this week. The old guard in the Republican Party, less so. The cabinet choices show Trump’s determination to deliver on his promises on mass deportation, bureaucratic overhaul and an America First foreign policy. The establishment types are out, and the outsiders are in. This is a Maga administration.
Top of the to-do list is taking the fight to the “deep state”, which includes the intelligence agencies, Justice Department and the military. During Trump’s first term, these bodies pushed back against his most authoritarian moves, such as deploying troops against protesters and declaring the 2020 election illegitimate. Each is now facing the imposition of leaders actively hostile to top personnel and critical of their record.
Take the Justice Department. Trump’s nomination of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General was celebrated by Maga figures such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, with the latter saying: “Trump is going to hit the Justice Department with a blowtorch and Matt Gaetz is that torch”.
Republicans on the Hill have been less enthused. The man Trump wants to be America’s top law enforcement official has been investigated for sex trafficking and accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl (no charges were brought and he denies the allegations). Gaetz, who has already resigned his seat before being confirmed as AG, relishes breaking taboos: he once reportedly showed nude photos of women on the House floor. Gaetz’s driving force appears to be demonstrating his loyalty to Trump: he was a leading 2020-election denier, much like his ally, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Green, who is already calling on Gaetz to prosecute officials who committed “crimes against humanity” during the Covid pandemic.
If his reputation and legal investigations don’t prevent his confirmation, watch out for how Gaetz approaches the anti-trust agenda. The Attorney General works closely with the Federal Trade Commission whose current chair Lina Khan has led a fight against monopolies such as Google and Microsoft. Geatz is closer to that position than some might expect. “As the Republican Party becomes more working class, we’re less captive to the neolibertarian view that everything big business does to people is OK,” he has told the Wall Street Journal. “[The Republicans] can’t be whores for big business and be the voice of the working class at the same time.”
Joining Gaetz in the fight against the so-called deep state is the former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard who has been nominated for Director for National Intelligence. Gabbard is good news for anyone opposed to America’s long wars abroad but has alarmed those who accuse her of parroting Kremlin talking points and don’t like that she once met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Director of National Intelligence oversees the president’s daily intelligence briefing, which means that Gabbard would decide what Trump sees – and what he doesn’t.
Then there is the midmorning Fox News host Pete Hegseth who has been nominated to lead the Pentagon. The former soldier who served three tours has built a name as a media figure who rails against wokeness in the military and defends soldiers charged with war crimes. As the Defence Secretary, he’ll command the most powerful military in world history at a time when Russia has considered deploying tactical nukes and China is threatening Taiwan.
But perhaps the most provocative move of all is the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Resources. The right-leaning tabloid, The New York Post, has already come out against the former Democrat with an editorial decrying his positions on health as “a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines”. Among those conspiracy theories is the suggestion that HIV isn’t the cause of AIDS and that hormones in the nation’s water are influencing children’s sexuality. (He’s also allied with Russell Brand in recent months.)
Kennedy’s radical views on how processed food, fluoride in the water supply and vaccines are fuelling a chronic health crisis could put him on a collision course not only with the country’s public health but also with corporate food and pharmaceutical interests. Money is already flooding into Washington to resist the Trump administration’s attacks on certain sectors of corporate America, and RFK’s battle against modern science will be a key test of Trump’s ability to create a new paradigm.
The biggest job goes to the Floridian Senator Marco Rubio who Trump has nominated for Secretary of State. The China hawk has described America’s rival as the “threat that will define this century”. He is also a staunch supporter of Israel and its war in the Middle East. At the same time, Rubio has voted against giving more aid to Ukraine, stating that “at the end of the day, what we are funding here is a stalemate war, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion”. If confirmed, which looks likely, Rubio would provide a respectable visage to Trump’s America First policy.
The Brits should watch out, though. Whitehall will have noted that Rubio, who has been sanctioned by China, was critical of the previous British government for potentially letting the Chinese clothes-maker Shein list in London – a sign that Labour’s more accommodating approach to China could draw the administration’s ire. Another potential source of tension could be Labour’s decision to become more critical of Israel in recent months.
Yet Rubio is a conventional choice. The rest of Trump’s team, however, are provocateurs and outsiders. His picks are confirmation that Trump intends to govern as he campaigned, setting up a battle between establishment figures in the government and his own outsider team. This is a remarkable break with what came before. There is some ideological incoherence to the team: Elon Musk, who is advising from outside the government on cutting spending, is a libertarian, while picks such as RFK and Gaetz see a bigger role for government when it comes to regulating corporations. What unites them is a desire to burn down America’s institutions in their current form. The question now is whether the Senate will approve this Maga wish-list.
[See also: The world according to Trump]
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