# Trump's new cabinet **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 6, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799 "2024-11-06T16:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![survinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@survinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survinga)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/281 "2024-11-16T17:27:38Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I’m truly in shock about what to do. That article is very right and the impetus to feel helpless and fall into inaction, or just watch the people who voted for Trump get what they deserve. I feel very conflicted. Recently, I started a thread about the rage that I felt after the election. As I’m transitioning out of the rage stage to more of a depressed stage, I’m feeling somewhat hopeless myself. My wife wants to leave the country, or at least have a “Plan B” waiting for us if it gets bad enough. I am thinking of a “move to a Blue State” option instead, at least as a starting point. I live in Georgia, which is a red state that has gone somewhat purple recently. But I’d feel more comfortable in a solidly blue state. To me, that’s a “Plan B”. But then, I’m not ignorant about the risks even in a Blue State. No one in any state is safe from the fascists that are taking over the federal government. I am almost 58. I have about 4-5 more years at my current company that I plan to finish up and retire when I’m 62-63. That might get thrown out the window though, if things get bad enough. OTOH, I could stick it out in Georgia and try to help lead the fight for Democrats in this state going forward. Regardless, we shouldn’t take lightly what is ahead of us. This country will be a very different place in 4 years. That much, I can gaurantee. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/282 "2024-11-16T17:39:22Z")
My take on both of them – him more so than her – is that they are Trump’s favorite kind of ‘counterpunchers’ or ‘attack dogs.’ > **[Steven Cheung's sharpest attacks on Donald Trump's critics](https://www.newsweek.com/steven-cheung-sharpest-attacks-donald-trump-critics-1986841)** > > Steven Cheung has acquired a reputation for his cutting and sometimes brutal verbal attacks on Donald Trump's political rivals. > **[This is how you do it: CNN cuts off interview with Trump spokesperson after...](https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/cnn-kasie-hunt-karoline-leavitt-interview/)** > > Karoline Leavitt would not stop verbally attacking CNN debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. So anchor Kasie Hunt cut her off. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/283 "2024-11-16T17:49:47Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Steven Cheung for Communications Director. I don’t know much about him, so I don’t know how bad this choice is. I didn’t study up on him carefully, but the general impression I got was pretty much every time something especially offensive and insulting came out of the Trump campaign, Cheung was pretty closely involved. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/284 "2024-11-16T18:12:39Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > We’ve been saying this for years now: The most important qualification any of them will have is “Loyalty to Trump”, and this is **all** a part of it. Agreed. So could there really be someone on the transition team, leaking to WaPo who believes normal vetting is somehow going on? Thinking about it again, the answer is maybe, but probably no. The transition team leak, complaining that Hegseth wasn’t vetted, was just something to tell reporters if you do not want Hegseth confirmed. I found another transition team member who could be the leaker, one Cliff Sims: [The ‘team of vipers’ is back](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/16/cliff-sims-trump-transition-vipers-00189924) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/285 "2024-11-16T22:13:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > At this point, with appointees like Gaetz and Gabbard, I think Trump has lost his mind and is just trolling the libs, hell-bent on nothing but destruction. Undoubtedly Trump is enjoying that aspect. But what’s more important is demonstrating to Congress that they are now the Duma: a show-body, powerless and compliant. Or else. Either the Republicans will give Trump his recess (and consequent recess appointments), thereby proving they are irrelevant, or they will vote for his most insane picks, thereby proving they are irrelevant. Heads he wins, tails they lose. **The crazier the picks, the more it proves his dominance.** Once they’re broken, he need no longer worry that they could interfere with anything he wants to do. It’s a classic how-to-become-an-autocrat tactic. But you know this. > [@Horatius](#): > > “The power of the office” ultimately lies in what the people in the office do when you give them an order. If someone shows up, says, “President Trump put me in charge, and now I’m telling you to flogisticate the frangistat!”, a lot of the staff will get on with the flogisticating. Sure, some might balk, but we already have DOGE saying they’re going to fire 50% or more of the government employees. How many do you think will stick their necks out in such an environment? > > Under the rule of law, we might have a chance, but undermining the rule of law is one of their top priorities. It will not be law that saves the US. Yes. The confidence some have that ‘nothing will really change’ and ‘the guardrails will hold’ and ‘he can’t do anything about the laws’ is naïve. (Or something else.) People behave according to what they believe to be their self-interest. Workers at the cabinet departments will, for the most part, try to go along with the orders of the person they’re told is the lawful boss. Whether the boss genuinely IS lawful is not something the workers are going to try to determine for themselves. They want their paychecks to keep coming. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/286 "2024-11-17T00:39:27Z")
> ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/287 "2024-11-17T00:40:27Z")
But does he like beer? ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/288 "2024-11-17T01:02:09Z")
You don’t understand. The Democrats are the party of sexual abusers, groomers and pedophiles. Just because Donald Trump has been found liable for sexual assault, hung around with Epstein and allegedly had sex with underaged girls at his parties and repeatedly made sexual comments about underaged girls, and Gaetz allegedly had sex with an underaged girl and this guy allegedly paid off a woman for sexual assault doesn’t mean that the Republicans are the party of sexual abusers and pedophiles ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/289 "2024-11-17T01:29:39Z")
Don’t forget Trump’s connections to John Casablancas (also moved to a private island after intimate relations with younger teens), Tevfik Arif (arrested in Turkey for trying to traffic underage girls in as part of a business deal for a creepy business partner), and George Nader. One notes that the pedophile thing is usually thrown in because of things like Michael Jackson, Cory Feldman’s accusations, and other rumor and scandal from Hollywood - the Democratic homeland. But that all forgets that the guy who bailed Trump out of his billion dollar loss in the casino business was the same guy that owned Michael Jackson’s house, and that Trump was a successful reality TV show producer that was in on the whole couch casting thing. For as much as Trump might be associated with New York, he was also a big Hollywood guy. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/290 "2024-11-17T02:33:30Z")
Chris Wright, who founded a fracking company in 2010, is Trump’s choice for Secretary of Energy. > “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video posted to LinkedIn last year. “The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive opportunity squelching policies justified in the name of climate change,” he added. This guy seems about par for the course thus far. [What to know about Trump’s energy secretary nominee Chris Wright - ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-energy-secretary-nominee-chris-wright/story?id=115935864) ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/291 "2024-11-17T12:48:59Z")
Not obviously a predator or security threat, so I feel better about him heading the Department of Nuclear Weapons (+ Some Other Stuff) than some of the other picks. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/292 "2024-11-17T13:18:10Z")
The cabinet of destruction. From my Australian friend: “Third world countries often have very little in the way of regulatory authorities. They often have a lot of building collapses, fires, health problems and disastrous environmental issues…” That is where we are headed. Musk will be in his plane headed to DC to slash nuclear waste programs. Meanwhile Ramaswamy has scrapped the FAA. The plane can’t land. Musk has to go back to Texas and land at a ranch where a billionire has a private strip. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/293 "2024-11-17T14:07:39Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I think Trump has lost his mind and is just trolling the libs, hell-bent on nothing but destruction. His “border czar”, Tom Homan, is likely to foment violence when he starts his promised “shock and awe” deportation campaign. This is the only thing I’m really sure of over the next 4 years. Maybe not Homan specifically, but the Trump admin is going to foment unrest, protests, and riots, for the sheer joy and spectacle of putting them down. Bonus points if he gives at least tacit approval to outsourcing some of the “enforcement” to paramilitary gangs like Proud Boys. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/294 "2024-11-17T14:34:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > An unlawful appointee would not be able to wield the power of the office. In theory, that may be true but who would contest it and how? The "unlawful’ Secretary shows up and orders that X be done. Some subordinate says, “You don’t have the power to do that.” He gets fired and security physically removes him from the building. How many subordinates will he go through before someone does what he is told? Maybe, some public interest group files suit. How long would that take to wind through the system? Even if a restraining order were to be issued, how long before a Trump judge reverses that? Saying that something is unlawful is meaningless when the enforcers are the offenders and the biggest offender has immunity. Perhaps, this is all hyperbole but this is how dictators come to power. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/295 "2024-11-17T14:58:10Z")
The Lewis book (The Fifth Risk) outlines a lot of necessary departements, which are there for our safety. Is there something we can slash safely for four years, at least? Yes, research. Medical research, drug research in colleges, many types of chemistry (think Lithium batteries) and countless practical fields are funded by the USA. Graduate student scholarships to do research. All that can be scrapped. Industry does not invent new chemical reactions, for example (many can’t be patented, they are there for common good). All that will need to be scrapped for now. And in the long run we will not be the leader in innovation anymore. China will be. They will also do many types of public constuction. We can’t build the Hoover Dams that the future technology will need. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/296 "2024-11-17T15:54:12Z")
Elon Musk would be perfect for overseeing the building and operation of the Freedom Cities. Who better to bring the flying cars? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/297 "2024-11-17T17:51:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > BTW, I am really hating this new season of “The Apprentice”. Well, get used to it, because this ‘Apprentice’ reboot has a 4-year contract, with an outside possibility of a multi-year extension. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/298 "2024-11-17T18:02:54Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > In theory, that may be true but who would contest it and how? The "unlawful’ Secretary shows up and orders that X be done. Some subordinate says, “You don’t have the power to do that.” He gets fired and security physically removes him from the building. How many subordinates will he go through before someone does what he is told? Google the [Saturday Night Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre), from 51 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/299 "2024-11-17T18:17:50Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Google the [Saturday Night Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre), from 51 years ago. Sadly, most Republicans have demonstrated since 2016 that they completely lack the courage to do anything similar. I think @MikeF’s scenario is far more plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799/300 "2024-11-17T20:07:20Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > The "unlawful’ Secretary shows up and orders that X be done. Some subordinate says, “You don’t have the power to do that.” He gets fired By who? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-new-cabinet/1009799.md?page=16)