Sure. And in doing so embraces (IMO, of course) an unconstitutional remedy. The Constitution does not condition the President’s authority to make appointments on anything but the advice and consent of the Senate. The remedy is for the Senate to refuse its consent to the President’s appointment of a close relative. I’m not aware that a President has nominated a close relative since the statue was adopted, so it hasn’t been tested.
Let us not forget Elon Musk “staring from scratch” with the federal workforce.
I don’t see what’s unconstitutional about it; as long as it doesn’t contradict what’s in the US Constitution, there’s no violation.
Of course, that would be a matter for the SCOTUS to settle (if it ever came up), and since the current group seems to be in the business of essentially making up laws themselves, who knows how they’d rule.
Misk stands a better chance of actually ending up in Trump’s cabinet thank RFK. Even though he’s not in fact completely dependent on Trump and willing to do whatever he says no matter how illegal (I mean while he would absolutely commit crimes, he also isn’t going to risk going to prison for trump). He is also very very rich, Trump I’m sure fancies his chances of separating Musk from a chunk of his cash.
Though don’t worry if Trump decides Musk’s dough is not worth the risk. I am sure he’ll find someone just as racist, comically incompetent, and narcissistic, but who is also completely beholden to Trump and willing to do whatever he says.
Term limits for Representative and the line-item veto were both thrown out for adding requirements not in the Constitution so I would think the standard is that a law cannot have the effect of being more strict than the power/requirements listed in the Constitution.
According to RFK, Jr., Trump promised him control of CDC, HHS, FDA, NIH, USDA, “…and a few others”. (One can only guess what those “others” are; Commerce? Homeland Security? White House Chief of Conspiranoia?)
So, that should simplify Cabinet appointments and streamline administration.
Stranger
The Constitution says the POTUS can appoint “officers” (which includes the cabinet, as the cabinet isn’t actually something in the Constitution specifically) but only by “the Advice and Consent of the Senate”.
So, any law that the Senate approves of to restrict those appointments seems to be fully within their power as granted by the Constitution, and of course that law needed Senate approval to get passed.
I don’t think JDVance can be VP and a cabinet head, but I could be wrong.
JD Vance can be anything he imagines he could be, as long as he can convince a publisher to print his bullshit.
Stranger
This seems like a real reach to me, but unless Trump plans to marry RFK Jr. this sidebar may be a hijack of the thread. Interesting topic, though. Maybe we can revisit it when Trump tries to appoint Barron as Secretary of State.
But it also needed House approval to get passed. Where does the House get the authority to determine who the Prez can appoint?
There are three separate questions here. I’m happy to answer all three of them!
Q: Would Trump appoint someone like RFK Jr to a position like Secretary of HHS even though said individual is crazier than a shit-house rat?
A: Certainly! This is just what Trump does – it is, if you will, his specialty. For instance, his last Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, was a radical loon vehemently opposed to public education.
Q: But would the Senate confirm such an individual?
A: Anyone asking such a question must have been living on Pluto for the last eight years. At Trump’s behest, the Senate had no trouble at all confirming an accused rapist to the Supreme Court, for example. The Republican Senate is comprised of spineless yokels who have been in Trump’s thrall since 2016.
Q: So in light of the above, can we assume that Trump will honour his commitment to give RFK Jr control of the nation’s health system?
A: When has Trump ever honoured any commitment to anyone or anything? RFK Jr is of no use to him. He’ll appoint some ass-kissing acolyte who’s of greater utility to him, possibly one of his mentally defective sons.
I’d agree with you IF it were a Senate Rule that the Senate could unilaterally change. But let’s say the Senate thinks Donnie Jr. would make a great Secretary of the Interior. As it is now as a law, the House would have a say as to if the law would be repealed (and the President as well) and they could easily say, “We’re not going to repeal the law.”. That’s what takes it beyond just advice & consent of the Senate and with the possibility of House interference makes it unconstitutional.
Ironically, was this law not passed in the shadow of RKF Jrs father as Attorney General under his uncle?
Yes it was, as I quoted earlier.
As for it being unconstitutional, I’m curious why that hasn’t come up before. Especially when Bill Clinton appointed his wife to a health task force, and when Donald Trump appointed his daughter and son-in-law to roles as senior advisors in his staff. In neither case did attorneys argue that the statute was unconstitutional, but instead pointed out that it was deemed to not apply to staff positions within the White House.
And I’ll also note that the appointment of relatives was widespread before and up to the passing of the statute. Yet apparently nobody figured out that it was unconstitutional in almost 60 years? (Until now on this board I guess.)
Regardless of whether or not people in this thread have an opinion about it’s constitutionality, to get back on the topic of this thread, it’s a fact that it is one of the few restrictions on appointing a person to a cabinet position (and one that I doubt would get in the way of RFK Jr now, since I don’t think he’s related to either current presidential candidate).
So really, if Trump is elected and does want to appoint RFK Jr to his cabinet, and he has a Senate majority that will go along, it will happen. (A lot of ifs there we can hope don’t come true!)
Don’t worry no need to argue the point. I am sure in this matter and any other the SCOTUS can be trusted to do their duty and keep us safe from any and all violations of the constitution during any future Trump presidencies (even during his third and fourth terms)
Kennedy has been sucking off Trump for some time now to an extent that’s impressive even by Trumpist standards; only Vivek Ramaswamy is a more shameless example. So Kennedy would likely get the job. Even more than in 2017, Trump is going to appoint the guys who’ve been smart enough to slobber all over his wang. “Loyalty” as he calls it (but what most of us call toadying) is all Trump cares about, and if he just hands the job to Kennedy he doesn’t have to think about it anymore.
This is really the deciding factor. I can’t imagine a world in which Trump wins the presidency, but the GOP loses the House and Senate.
So a president Trump 2.0 will have a compliant Congress, and we know that, from everything we’ve seen these last 8 years, such a Congress will not hold Trump to account for anything. The people who have the power to insist that Trump follow tradition, the law, or the Constitution, simply will not exercise that power. And I suspect the courts will throw out any third party lawsuits that try to make them do their jobs for a lack of standing.
Which job, though? Because apparently, Trump promised him the world.
The key, which President Trump has promised me, is control of the public health agencies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others. And also the USDA, which is, you know, key to making America healthy, because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticides … and we need to make that transition to regenerative agriculture
True, and I think there are layers here.
First, there is what RFK Jr himself is claiming. I don’t know the man personally, of course, but he never came off as the most reliable person. Few whale-decapitating antivax activists with brainworms would be. So, we’d have to trust that what he is reporting is true. Or, that he understood what Donald Trump was promising him; maybe he’s honestly mistaken?
As for Trump himself, the man rambles, he claims that he “weaves” in conversations, others say it’s a sign of dementia, but regardless when you listen to the man it’s like picking through a pile of dirty laundry to find a matching 3 piece suit. Trump might have spoken in a vague way that promised anything and nothing, or may not have even know what he was saying. And the man lies, and changes his mind. He also has a history of promising one thing and doing the opposite, especially with people who support him that he sees as disposable marks that he’ll discard once he no longer needs them.
Given all of that, it’s practically impossible to know what role Trump would offer him if he had the ability to do it, if it’s any role at all. I’d speculate that it would depend on how much value Trump would feel he personally got from having Kennedy in a role at that time.