President-elect Donald Trump announced this week that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be nominated for the director of the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration.
Trump’s cabinet choices have been nothing short of awful, but conservatives should be alarmed by the number of former Democrats filling the ranks of a second Trump administration.
Enter RFK Jr., who last year sought the Democratic nomination for presidentAnd Tulsi Gabbardthe former Democratic congresswoman nominated by Trump to be director of national intelligence, we are seeing the construction of an administration that is not filled with conservatives.
Many of Trump’s nominees are devoid of conservative principles, underqualified, or just plain ridiculous. The only quality that seems to count for a place in this administration is love of Trump – even new ones.
Notice:Gaetz for AG? Trump’s Cabinet nominees are starting to rightly worry the Republican Party.
Donald Trump doesn’t like conservatives
I’ve been criticized for saying Trump isn’t conservative for years, but the more he builds his 2024 transition team, the more vindicated I feel.
Sure, Trump’s views are more in line with conservative voters, but his policies and Cabinet appointments are quite the opposite. Historically, Republican Cabinet members have aligned themselves with the values of a hawkish foreign policy, protection of individual liberties, and limited government. These values are no longer priorities within the Trump administration, which seems more concerned with government control than anything else.
RFK Jr. and Gabbard’s administration picks do one thing: They add people who have made a political resurgence thanks to their loyalty to Trump. What they don’t do is hire competent people with conservative principles to lead valuable departments that have the potential to show voters why conservatives should lead.
Gabbard is a former Democratic presidential candidate who turned to Trump’s favor to gain attention. Her an isolationist foreign policy he’s not exactly someone previous Republican presidents would have chosen to lead national intelligence.
Like other members of the future administration, she quickly moved from criticize Trump to congratulate him in a few years, revealing his lack of coherent principles.
RFK Jr. comes from a long line of Kennedys, all Democrats. Although its influence is likely to be limited to HHS, its previous policy points And quick response to reviews of Trump worries me.
Besides the fact that his conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and vaccinesin general, should be concerning enough to disqualify him from such a health care position, that he’s not even really conservative, which means he has no place in a Republican administration at all by pretending to be such.
Trump is ready to pardon everyone – except true conservatives
We shouldn’t entrust power to people who are so willing to turn against Trump in order to gain power, but Trump is obviously a lenient man when it comes to feeding his ego, even more so than he does. It’s with the real Republicans who disagree with him.
Trump has long-standing grudges with Georgia’s governor. Brian Kempsenator from Kentucky. Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans who would have antagonized him simply by sticking to conservative principles of governance.
Notice:Will Republicans agree with those who hate Trump, or will they do their job and govern like adults?
The reason is that he resents those who try to restrict his power, which is all the man really wants. Reviews of RFK Jr., Vice President-elect JD Vance Or Gabard can all be forgiven as they do not impact his takeover and ultimately embrace his ego.
Trump’s biggest grudges are against those who have staunchly defended conservatism, which goes against everything Trump stands for. For this reason, Trump will likely make many more enemies in a second administration, because the only defense against his ridiculous slate of nominees is the Senate Republican Party.
It is up to conservatives to keep Trump within the checks and balances of our system. It’s a shame there aren’t more of them in his new administration.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a political science graduate from DePaul University.