The United States experienced a new “day of frenzy”marked by a slew of controversial appointments within Donald Trump's team, including those of entrepreneur Elon Musk and Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth at the Department of Defense, summarizes the Washington Post.
The Republican confirmed his campaign promise on Tuesday, November 12, by appointing Musk, the richest man on the planet and one of his main supporters, to head a new ministry of“governmental efficiency”jointly with Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. “Together, these two great Americans will chart a path for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies.”Trump said in a statement.
This appointment, which worries civil servants whose jobs could be threatened, also raises “immediate questions about possible conflicts of interest”the billionaire leader “companies that benefit from lucrative government contracts”, REMARK CNN.
Hegseth, a controversial figure in Defense
The appointment of Pete Hegseth to Defense, announced a little earlier by Trump, is also “particularly controversial”, note it Washington Post. This Fox News columnist, an Army National Guard veteran who, according to his website, served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, “encouraged Trump to grant pardons […] in high-profile war crimes cases, despite Pentagon objections”reminds us of everyday life.
If his nomination is confirmed by the Senate, he could fulfill Trump's campaign promise to rid the US military of generals he accuses of carrying progressive diversity policies. He has “explicitly confirmed that he could target military leaders like General CQ Brown” specifies Politico. Hegseth accuses this African-American soldier of “pursue the radical positions of left-wing politicians”. Trump's favorite claims to have left the army in 2021, after being considered an extremist by an institution that no longer wanted him.
Hegseth would succeed Lloyd Austin, “a retired four-star general who led the Pentagon during Biden’s four-year term”notice Washington Post.
Loyalists unlikely to contradict Trump
On Tuesday, Trump also announced that he would nominate former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor who advocates Israeli colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, to the post of ambassador to Israel. And the former ultraconservative elected official John Ratcliffe at the head of the CIA.
Some of the quick choices Trump made on Tuesday “surprised” up to the breast of “his own team”tells him Post. “There is a total atmosphere of chaos”declared one of its members who requested anonymity.
According to the American daily, some around Trump have notably “spent the day trying to dissuade him from choosing [Kristi] Mention [à la sécurité intérieure]who would run a sprawling federal bureaucracy with a $60 billion budget and more than 230,000 employees,” and “an essential role in Trump's domestic policy agenda, given his promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.” “What does she know about Homeland Security? She is the governor of South Dakota! ” notably declared a Trump advisor to the Washington Post.
The Republican “may have been caught off guard when he won the 2016 presidential election, but this time he and his team took the lead” by making key appointments within his administration early, “staffing the White House and his cabinet with loyalists willing to do anything to carry out his agenda,” analyzes the American magazine Rolling Stone.
Trump seeks to avoid “the appointment of Republicans from the establishment whom he accuses of having defeated his first term objectives”note the Wall Street Journal. “But for the analysts”the fact that Trump seeks to surround himself with a “team of loyalists opposed to any dissenting opinion carries risks”underlines the conservative daily. “Trump does not make decisions in an orderly manner. He tends to announce them without consulting his advisors or via social networks”reminds him Wall Street Journal. “During his first term, members of his team often tried to reverse some of his decisions. Loyalists are more likely to implement them without proposing alternative ideas or debating possible pitfalls.
