Washington Post Supports Many Of Trump’s Miscreants For Key Posts

Jeff Bezos blocked an editorial in the Washington Post last year that endorsed Kamala Harris’s run for the presidency, and his senior editors blocked a powerful cartoon that featured the billionaire class, including Bezos, groveling at Trump’s feet and handing him bags of money.  Bezos’s well-behaved editorial board followed up with an editorial that listed the cabinet appointees that the paper would endorse or deny confirmation.  The editorial dissented regarding approval of the obvious miscreants such as Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Russ Vought to manage the Office of Management and Budget, but the Post gave the nod to many opportunists and Trump acolytes who seek power, money, and prestige.

The Post had no problem endorsing several troglodytes who never should be in a position to advise a president or run a major government agency.  It is an outrage that the Post would support the confirmation of such Trump loyalists at sensitive posts, including John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Kristi Noem as director of Homeland Security, Elise Stefanik as ambassador the United Agency, and Pam Bondi as Attorney General.  Ratcliffe has a history of politicizing intelligence for Donald Trump in the president’s first term.  He lacks sufficient national security experience, and his best experience is serving as a partisan warrior for Donald Trump.  Among Trump’s advisers, Ratcliffe was the most skilled at feeding the president’s fixation on “deep state” malfeasance.

Kristi Noem is best known for shooting and killing her pet dog named “Cricket” as well as a billy goat.  In her memoir, she claimed to have had a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, which was one of many pieces of disinformation in the book.  When Trump stepped up his criticism of President Joe Biden’s border and immigration policies, she got in line and focused on the issue.  This was particularly ironic because Noem has been accused of providing misinformation on border issues in her own state, where she is barred from setting foot on tribal lands that cover about 12 percent of the state’s territory.  So now she will be in charge of Homeland Security’s $100 billion budget for overseeing border issues, and will work closely with Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan, another reprobate.

Elise Stefanik is a leading Trump loyalist, nominated for a position that finds her without qualification and experience: Ambassador to the United Nations.  Stefanik is a staunch supporter of Israel, and a critic of the UN for insufficient support for that country.  She has little experience in foreign policy and national security issues.  Stefanik wants the United States to “completely reassess” its funding of the UN.  She once worked for John Bolton, who also wanted to blow up the UN.  Stefanik often states that she is “proud to be a top surrogate” for Donald Trump.  Like the others, Stefanik is an unqualified power seeker.

Pam Bondi stepped into the slot for Attorney General when Matt Gaetz was forced to withdraw.  Like Gaetz, she is a Trump loyalist, having served as one of his lawyers in the first impeachment trial.  Bondi led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, and was an activist in challenging the state vote totals in the 2020 election. Like so many Trump selections, Bondi has made regular appearances on Fox News, and has a close public relationship with Fox anchor Sean Hannity.  Most of Trump’s selections lobbied for their positions by making multiple appearances on Fox.

The Post editorial didn’t bother to note three appointees who should not be on a short list for any leadership position in the administration.  The worst of the three is Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In view of his enemies list that includes journalists and politicians, Patel could be more dangerous that J. Edgar Hoover.  Trump tried to make Patel a deputy director of the CIA in his first term, but CIA director Gina Haspel threatened to resign if the president did so.  The same scenario played out at the Department of Justice where Attorney General William Barr blocked Patel’s path.

Trump named Dr. Mehmet Oz to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which costs the government more than $1 trillion annually and covers more than 150 million Americans.  Oz is best known for promoting health misinformation, particularly ineffective Covid treatments.  He lost a faculty position at Columbia University in 2022, when a group of doctors called for his ouster.  Oz has a long history of promoting dubious weight loss products, has boasted that his children did not receive flu shots, and has criticized vaccine mandates.

Neither the Post nor the Times has bothered to report the appointment of Keith Bass to manage the Pentagon’s humongous and cumbersome healthcare systems that serve more than three million civilian and military personnel.  Bass was fired by the CIA in 2021 for his poor management of the agency’s Office of Medical Services.  CIA director William Burns fired Bass because he mishandled the agency’s investigation of “Havana Syndrome,” a series  of mysterious incidents and illnesses that have struck scores of CIA and State Department personnel.  A Senate Intelligence Committee report blasted the CIA’s handling of the issue, which led to inadequate and insufficient care.

There has never been a presidential cabinet or a series of presidential appointments as unqualified and chaotic as those chosen by Donald Trump.  In his first administration, he knew little about the qualifications of his appointees, and many were fired or forced to resign for various reasons, including ethical violations.  In his second term, he will have a group of like-minded loyalists who will not push back on his excesses.  If “democracy dies in darkness,” we can thank Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, and others for blowing out the candles.

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