BY MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS NOVEMBER 20 2024
With impressive speed and a lot more fanfare than normally accompanies such news, President-Elect Donald Trump has nominated and staffed up a large number of his incoming administration. This is the first part of a lengthy process of hearings and confirmations, but like most of what Trump does, the American media and people are fascinated and riveted by each new decision. In the spirit of adding to that fanfare and throwing more gasoline on the fire, here are the grades for the most consequential of Trump’s picks.
Just a few disclaimers. First, this is grading Trump, not the pick him/herself. Each person selected will have to sink or swim on their own, and will be graded on their performance for years to come (assuming they get confirmed). Second, brevity requires that these grades are limited to the most controversial and/or consequential picks. Sorry, Doug Burgum, but there’s no need for a soliloquy about the Department of the Interior.
Third, and this is the most important. There is a lot of discussion among the chattering commentary class that these selections are “unqualified” for the positions they were chosen for. These commentators have framed the entire discussion incorrectly. They do not know what the job that the person selected is being hired to do. They, in short, are reading the wrong job descriptions. So, when necessary, the job description will be included as part of the grade.
Let’s start with some easy ones.
Mike Huckabee – U.S. Ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee is, in short, the best possible pick for Ambassador to Israel that anyone who cares about Israel’s future could have hoped for. This is not a slight on David Friedman, who to this date is the best Ambassador to Israel the United States ever had. Mike Huckabee, however, has passionately advocated for Israel for nearly 50 years.
I don’t think anything can prove that Huckabee is right for the role more than the attacks that JStreet lobbied against him after he was picked. They posted that Huckabee has “utter disregard for international law, longstanding US policy and, of course, the brutal reality of occupation,” as a reaction to a video when Huckabee said, “There is no such thing as the West Bank – it’s Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as settlements – they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such thing as an occupation.”
JStreet’s fear and anger over this appointment is enough.
Grade: A+
Marco Rubio – Secretary of State
The Secretary of State is arguably the toughest job in the cabinet, which is why they are fourth in line for the presidency. Negotiating on behalf of the president and the nation is no simple task, and it’s made all the more complicated when you are beginning your term with a world on fire. Russia, Israel, Iran, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Brazil, and NATO are all in worse shape today than they were when Trump left office four years ago.
Then there are the massive internal staffing problems at the State Department, which is filled with unelected lifetime policy “experts” who have undermined peace and stability in the world because they, of course, know better. Those people need to be weeded out and shown the door, replaced with people who actually can project American strength to their international counterparts.
Marco Rubio has a big task ahead of him. Fortunately for him, Trump is at his best in the foreign policy, and will provide plenty of direction for how he sees that policy shape. So Rubio’s task is more about cleaning house at State. Rubio, as a member of the Senate, has great policy instincts and a strong record of pro-Israel legislation and peace through strength rhetoric, but he does not have the executive experience of a governor or business experience that would assume that he is equipped to handle the restructuring that is necessary over the State Department.
Grade: B+
Pete Hegseth – Department of Defense
First, a well-deserved criticism to all the commentators, pundits and elected officials who derided this choice as Trump simply picking a “Fox News host.” Pete Hegseth is a Princeton graduate, 20-year combat veteran with two Bronze Stars, and the author of four books about how to make the military better. Media personalities claiming that Hegseth is not qualified because he is currently on Fox News is an admittance that they themselves are not qualified for any job.
The DOD has been undergoing a crisis since the end of the Cold War. With the exception of a 5-year period in the “War on Terror,” the last 30 years of military public relations has been mostly apologetic for even existing. That, combined with feckless ads about how woke the military has become, means that the recruitment is well below goals. Additionally, the Pentagon failed its audit for the seventh year in a row and cannot account for its $824 billion budget.
The best case for Hegseth, however, was made by one of his detractors, when an anonymous defense contractor lobbyist told Politico, “Who [expletive deleted] is this guy?” The fact that Hegseth is not in the pocket of the defense industry is a bonus, not a detriment. Additionally, his love of Israel and his claim in 2018 that there was “no reason” a third temple could not be established on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, means that he is an incredible choice.
Grade: A+
Matt Gaetz – Attorney General
This one caught everyone by surprise. Matt Gaetz is up there with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert as the most controversial members of the House Republicans. The numerous allegations made against him have subjected him to a House Ethics Committee investigation, and he unilaterally decided to throw the whole Caucus in chaos a year ago over a personal vendetta against Kevin McCarthy. Gaetz has more baggage than the average El Al flight.
Trump’s Attorney General needs to take a strong lead in ensuring states are complying with federal law, especially immigration law and the Civil Rights Act. Many states have already said they would not comply with Trump’s enforcement of the immigration laws of the country, and many college campuses are violating Title’s VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act by not protecting Jews on campus and allowing men to compete in women’s sports. The AG needs to be militant in protecting these laws. And just like the State Department, the AG’s office needs to be cleaned out of partisan prosecutors.
As Megyn Kelly pointed out, Trump’s first AG recused himself from the Russia collusion investigation and gave it to Robert Mueller, which cast a shadow over the first few years of the term. Biden’s AG’s prosecuted Trump. It makes total sense that Trump would pick someone completely loyal to him like Matt Gaetz. That being said, Gaetz has too much baggage for it to be worth it.
The theory currently is that Gaetz is a red herring pick. Give moderate and swing Republicans a pick they can vote against so all the other ones go through. Gaetz, surprisingly, resigned from Congress after the pick. There is speculation that he did so to prevent the House Ethics report from dropping on him. This is a lot of conversation and controversy around Gaetz, and is a distraction from much stronger appointments that Trump has made. However, Trump gets points if this is a 4D chess move, and for making a lot of people’s faces melt.
Grade: D-
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr – Department of Health and Human Services
Looking up the list of former Secretaries of HHS, the only name that is recognizable is the current one, and that’s because he was Attorney General of California. HHS heads have done nothing of note except keep the gears of government churning. That has led to America being the world’s fattest, laziest, most depressed and least healthy wealthy nation in the world.
There is no guarantee that RFK Jr, who has made it his life’s mission to get additives that every other nation bans out of our foods, can change all of that, but knowing that this is a mission that he is on means that he’s head and shoulders above his predecessors. When RFK dropped out, he gave a 40-minute speech about America’s health. It was obvious that this was the role he wanted in the Trump administration, and Trump delivered.
Grade: A
Tulsi Gabbard – Director of National Intelligence
This past June, Tulsi Gabbard was put on the no-fly list from an anonymous member of the intelligence community. Now she’s going to be that person’s boss.
Fifty-one former and then-current members of the intelligence community signed a letter during the 2020 election that the hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. This was a lie. In January 2017, before Trump took office, Chuck Schumer said that it was “really dumb” to take on the intelligence community, telling Rachel Maddow, “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”
That is insane. We cannot have unelected, unnamed bureaucrats controlling the acts and policies of the elected president. The intel community must be reined in.
Is Tulsi Gabbard the person to do it? Unlike others, she is not ignorant of the threats that the intel community deals with or poses. She is also going up against the most egocentric and self-important people in government. Her job is essentially coordinating between the FBI and CIA and briefing the President, but she will also need to suss out what is not being told to her. Trump made a good choice, as Tulsi has been abandoned by the Democrats and been embraced fully by Trump’s team, her loyalty will be to him.
Grade: A-
Tom Homan – Border Czar
Tom Homan is a pitbull if there ever was one. He’s prepared to take on every single Blue state and Blue city governor to conduct massive deportations, and does not care what the media or the Democrats throw at him. That’s good, because the first picture of a brown child crying will be plastered everywhere. Homan will need a heart of stone, and it seems like he has one.
Grade: A+
Elise Stefanik – UN Ambassador
The only qualification for being UN Ambassador is the willingness to yell at terrible people. Elise Stefanik was already in Republican leadership, but she gained national attention when she got three university presidents to admit that calling for the genocide of Jews on their campuses would not violate their codes for hateful speech or conduct. She will have a lot of fun yelling at America- and Israel-hating idiots and being translated into 150 languages.
Grade: A
Lee Zeldin – EPA Administrator
This is one of the cases where the commentators do not understand the job description of EPA Administrator. They think it means to put in regulations to ensure that fossil fuels are used less and solar and wind energy are used more. That is not true. There are tradeoffs for regulating the environment beyond what is necessary to maintain clean air and water, and for allowing green energy projects to run without thinking about them.
Zeldin took a tough stance against the Green New Deal-esque regulations that Kathy Hochul was propagating when they went head-to-head for the New York Governor’s race in 2022. He knows, based on proposed plans to put in offshore wind farms, that there are massive costs to the wildlife and quality of life of those that live near there. Zeldin will be a key player in Trump’s plan to cut regulations
Grade: A
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk – Department of Government Efficiency
For the sake of efficiency, combining the two heads of one government task force seems logical. It is also ironic that there are two heads of an efficiency task force, but since neither of them are taking a salary, they get a pass.
This is not a new Department in the Executive branch. This is basically a list of ways that the government could be more streamlined. There is no reason why people should be scared of their suggestions unless they are the ones wasting or listing the government’s money. So, on second thought, around 2 million federal employees should be scared.
Vivek and Elon are both highly successful businessmen who will hopefully take the acumen to government. They are tasked with making the government more efficient by July 4, 2026 – America’s 250th birthday.
Grade: A
Conclusion
President Trump has assembled an all-star team to assist him in the years to come. With the Senate being held by Republicans, most of these appointments should be confirmed without issue. However, if Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, or other senators want to use their own political capital to get something out of Trump, then this could be a long haul. One thing is for sure: President Trump is determined to hit the ground running the moment he takes that oath of office.
