# Trump's Cabinet of Curiosities **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 10, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367 "2016-11-10T16:28:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/621 "2016-12-16T03:14:48Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Yeah, Obama isn’t psychic. He didn’t predict the rise of ISIS. Who _did_? [GWB in 2007.](https://youtu.be/RRdoiTH_iZg) > [@](#): > > To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous. Yours is an odd question to me, since for the entirety of the occupation the GOP line was “cutting and running” would lead to anarchy and we had to “fight the terrorists over there instead of over here.” Even some of the dovish Republicans (RIP) used the Powell logic of if you break it, you buy it. Others said we had to stay there for the next 50 years, like in Germany, Japan, or S.Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/622 "2016-12-16T04:17:24Z")
Its time to [Blind Trump With Science!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMWGXt979ygBlind) A new breed of protesters took to San Francisco’s streets Tuesday: [Scientists clad in white lab coats.](http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Geophysical-Union-scientists-protest-Trump-10794212.php) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/623 "2016-12-16T13:01:49Z")
The one thing that gives me satisfaction is to see Christie and Gu911ani being left out of the mix. After both of them spent the last 6 months or so kissing that enormous orange ass it’s nice to see that they have nothing to show for it but dirty knees. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/624 "2016-12-16T15:37:28Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The one thing that gives me satisfaction is to see Christie and Gu911ani being left out of the mix. After both of them spent the last 6 months or so kissing that enormous orange ass it’s nice to see that they have nothing to show for it but dirty knees. Me too. The last thing I want is a bunch of northeastern liberals in the cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/625 "2016-12-16T15:45:36Z")
So, then, _Infowars_ is the voice of the moderate centrist, and Hillary is a bomb-making Trotskyist. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/626 "2016-12-16T15:52:35Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Me too. The last thing I want is a bunch of northeastern liberals in the cabinet. I don’t think you’ll be a happy camper when Elizabeth Warren names her cabinet in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/627 "2016-12-16T16:02:14Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t think you’ll be a happy camper when Elizabeth Warren names her cabinet in 2020. No, if she were to run and win in 2020 (both of which I think are a tad unlikely), I imagine I’d hate her Cabinet picks. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/628 "2016-12-16T16:16:51Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > No, if she were to run and win in 2020 (both of which I think are a tad unlikely), I imagine I’d hate her Cabinet picks. And there’s the difference: We dislike the picks he has made individually as he has picked them because of what they have already said and/or done and/or because of what they have said their intentions are going to be-not because just because they were picked by Trump. That’s totally different from pre-judging picks without even knowing who they would be just because you you don’t like the candidate’s political affiliation. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/629 "2016-12-16T16:19:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And there’s the difference: We dislike the picks he has made individually as he has picked them because of what they have already said and/or done and/or because of what they have said their intentions are going to be-not because just because they were picked by Trump. > That’s totally different from pre-judging picks without even knowing who they would be just because you you don’t like the candidate’s political affiliation. Just because I can take a pretty good guess at the sort of people a hypothetical President Warren would pick doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to reconsider if my guess turns out to be wrong, or if they end up being better than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/630 "2016-12-16T16:38:59Z")
(Never mind. Posted in error.) ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/631 "2016-12-16T18:08:56Z")
It’s like we’ve elected Dr. Evil. > **[Trump’s newest pick is a defender of puppy mills — "An industry of torture"](https://www.mic.com/articles/162185/trump-s-newest-pick-is-a-defender-of-puppy-mills-an-industry-of-torture)** > > President-elect Donald Trump's administration is slowly taking shape, and more than a few of his leadership picks have aroused concern either for their personal histories or questionable qualifications. But one of Trump's most recent picks to helm… > [@](#): > > President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is slowly taking shape, and more than a few of his leadership picks have aroused concern either for their personal histories or questionable qualifications. But one of Trump’s most recent picks to helm his transition, Brian Klippenstein, has an almost cartoonishly-villainous history protecting puppy mills from regulation that would make them more humane. > > Trump tapped Klippenstein to join the team leading the U.S. Department of Agriculture transition on Friday, Mother Jones reported. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/632 "2016-12-16T18:18:39Z")
Can you imagine the disappointment Trump felt when he found out Cruella De Vil wasn’t a real person? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/633 "2016-12-16T18:25:51Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > It’s like we’ve elected Dr. Evil. > > [Trump’s newest pick is a defender of puppy mills — "An industry of torture"](https://mic.com/articles/162185/trump-s-newest-pick-is-a-defender-of-puppy-mills-an-industry-of-torture#.6wPsbpEA6) No, we have put the Skeksis in power. > **[Skeksis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeksis)** > > The Skeksis are a fictional species that serves as the main antagonists in the 1982 film The Dark Crystal and its related franchise. The word "Skeksis" serves as both singular and plural form for this species, with the singular being pronounced /ˈskɛksɪs/ and the plural /ˈskɛksiːz/. They are described by concept artist Brian Froud as, "part reptile, part predatory bird, part dragon". The Skeksis are represented by puppets engineered under the direction of Jim Henson. Jim Henson said that in Jim H... ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/634 "2016-12-16T19:03:21Z")
Good times ahead. We have an amateur president, so why not put amateurs in other key positions, eh? My bold. > [@](#): > > [Lawrence] Kudlow will reportedly be nominated to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a position that will require him to advise the president on economic policy and crank out 600-page research reports. Observers were quick to note that Kudlow will be the \*\*unusual case of a CEA chief without a Ph.D. in economics, much less an undergraduate degree in the field. \*\*Old columns written by Kudlow also resurfaced such as one National Review in 2002 in which **he lobbied for the U.S. to invade Iraq to rally the stock market or another in December 2007 in which he declared that there was no recession coming.** > > Kudlow’s appointment marks a return of supply-side economics, a regimen of low taxes and little regulation of which he has long been an adherent since his days as a budget official in the Reagan administration. Kudlow, who served as an advisor on Trump’s campaign, expressed enthusiasm about the future of the American economy under President-elect Trump in recent days. “I like what I see,” Kudlow said recently of Trump’s cabinet appointments. “The tax-cut program will really put a booster rocket underneath this economy. The top people in the administration are all there to push that—that’s why I like them.” > > [Cite](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/larry-kudlow-trump/510878/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed%3a+theatlantic+%28the+atlantic+-+master+feed%29) > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named David M. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer aligned with the Israeli far right, as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, elevating a campaign adviser who has questioned the need for a two-state solution and has\*\* likened left-leaning Jews in America to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust.\*\* > > Mr. Friedman, whose outspoken views stand in stark contrast to decades of American policy toward Israel, did not wait long on Thursday to signal his intention to upend the American approach. In a statement from the Trump transition team announcing his nomination, he said he looked forward to doing the job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.” > > … \ … > > Mr. Friedman, **who has no diplomatic experience** , has said that he does not believe it would be illegal for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank and he supports building new settlements there, which Washington has long condemned as illegitimate and an obstacle to peace. > > [Cite](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/donald-trump-david-friedman-israel-ambassador.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/635 "2016-12-16T19:06:14Z")
[Trump reportedly eyeing Sylvester Stallone for chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-trump-eyeing-a-sly-figure-for-key-arts-1481904627-htmlstory.html) Sure, why not. :smack::smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/636 "2016-12-16T19:13:25Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > [Trump reportedly eyeing Sylvester Stallone for chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-trump-eyeing-a-sly-figure-for-key-arts-1481904627-htmlstory.html) > > Sure, why not. :smack::smack::smack: Does he want to end the NEA? Because if not, I think Trump could find someone better. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/637 "2016-12-16T19:16:05Z")
Easy there, hoss. Don’t want to start raining down condemnations like that. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/638 "2016-12-16T19:32:40Z")
Honest question: What does the director of the NEA do? Is it an administrative role, where they’re knee-deep in policy all the time? Or is it more of a cheerleading job? The linked article says Bill Clinton appointed actress Jane Alexander to head then NEA in 1993, a position she held until 1997. I’m not a huge fan of Stallone’s movies (with a few exceptions). But I don’t think the guy is dumb. Maybe this is not a terrible appointment? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/639 "2016-12-16T21:34:51Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > And the Republicans would have no problem with an Obama nomination for the head of the EPA being the leader of the Earth First movement. [Earth first! Make Mars our bitch!](https://pics.onsizzle.com/gfip-com-earth-first-make-mars-our-bitch-donnie-sad-comics-4870367.png) > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Nonsense. There are lots of reasons people don’t get convicted aside from corruption. Unless it’s Hillary Clinton, according to many conservatives. > [@wolfpup](#): > > The only unknown is whether Carson will be merely incompetent like almost all the others, or the actual antithesis of what the department is supposed to stand for, like the future Sec of Education who is opposed to education, or the future head of EPA who makes his money denying climate change. It would be a perfect fit if it turned out that Carson was fundamentally opposed to housing or the development of anything urban. What kills me about Carson is that he said he wasn’t qualified for a Cabinet position, and yet thought he was qualified to run for PotUS. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367/640 "2016-12-16T21:39:12Z")
The bidding for “Coffee with Ivanka” has mysteriously been taken down. > **[‘Coffee With Ivanka’ Fundraising Page Mysteriously Taken Down After Scrutiny](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ivanka-trump-coffee-fundraiser-disappears)** > > A charity fundraising page which was auctioning off a coffee date with Ivanka Trump to the highest bidder has been taken down without explanation, NPR first reported Friday. The fundraiser… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/771367.md?page=33)