Cabinet of Horribles: Trump's National Security Picks
Department of State: Trump has named U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his choice to head the State Department. In 2013, Marco Rubio had previously debated isolationist Senator Rand Paul in favor of a more hawkish approach to Iran. Choosing Rubio suggests Trump may not be as opposed military intervention abroad as Trump’s isolationist reputation might suggest, although Rubio has signaled in a tweet that he is moving closer to Trump’s pro-Putin position in favor of abandoning Ukraine.
Department of Defense: Marco Rubio is a relatively conventional choice for Trump, but Trump’s selection of Fox News channel host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense have left even Senate Republicans gasping that the nomination “makes no sense.” Hegseth has no executive experience, let alone the experience necessary to manage the massive Pentagon bureaucracy. Instead, Hegseth seems to have won the nod from President Fox News Grampa because he talks good on Donald’s magic TV box.
Trump’s nomination of Hegseth has left some anti-Trump folks (myself included) hopeful that Trump’s incompetence and failure to follow meritocratic principles in appointing executive staff will prevent Trump from inflicting as much damage as he wants to do. On the other hand, Hegseth’s apparent white Christian nationalist sympathies are a major cause for concern. In January 2021, Hegseth was going to be deployed with 25,000 other National Guardsmen to help protect Joe Biden at his inauguration, but Hegseth was ordered to stand down because he was suspected of holding extremist views. Hegseth claims that he was excluded solely because of his Jerusalem Cross tattoo, but his tattoo looks like it’s suspiciously close to including four Iron Crosses to me.
Hegseth also has a tattoo on his bicep that says “Deus Vult,” the Latin phrase meaning “God wills it,” a reference to Pope Urban II’s rallying cry for the First Crusade. In today’s political context, this Latin phrase has strong white Christian nationalist overtones. Rioters at the January 6th insurrection against the Capitol waved a flag with a Crusader cross and the words “Deus Vult” on it. In addition, Mauricio Garcia, a Latino gunman who shot and killed 8 people in a mall parking lot in Allen, Texas in 2023, got his own Deus Vult tattoo after acquiring a large set of neo-Nazi tattoos first. Hegseth has already admitted to some extreme views in public. His tattoos raise questions about even more extremist views he might hold in private.
Department of Homeland Security: She may be better known to infrequent news consumers as the South Dakota governor who killed the family dog, but now Kristi Noem has been named as Trump's nominee for Homeland Security.
In a political stunt in 2021, Noem deployed 48 troops from the South Dakota National Guard to the Texas border after receiving a $1 million donation from GOP billionaire donor Willis Johnson. Noem tried to justify the deployment by saying that her donor would cover all the cost, but the stunt cost $1.5 million, which cost South Dakota taxpayers half a million dollars siphoned out of a state emergency fund. In 2023, Noem did it again by deploying 50 South Dakota guardsmen to Eagles Pass, Texas for a cost of $850,000, which was paid for by depleting a state disaster fund set aside for South Dakotans. Lastly, earlier this year, Noem offered to send more razor wire to the Texas border, despite the wire being linked to at least three migrant deaths from drowning.
Other Foreign Policy Positions: Mike Waltz, Donald Trump's pick for National Security Advisor, favored arming Ukraine in 2022, but by October 2024, Waltz has signaled that he wants to redirect military resources from Ukraine to the Pacific. Ukrainian minister Tymofiy Mylovanov tweeted praised Waltz for his hawkish pro-Ukraine line on toughening Russian sanctions, but will Waltz bend to Trump's will in abandoning Ukraine for the sake of goading China? Time will tell.
Trump picked former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Given that Trump was reportedly thinking of appointing "Deep State" conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to the CIA instead, old hands at CIA are reportedly consoled that "it could have been a lot worse."
Mike Huckabee, the man who once said "There's no such thing as a Palestinian." is Trump's selection for the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Reverend Huckabee, a Baptist minister who believes in apocalyptic End Times theology, was called “an utter nut case”, according to Luis G. Moreno, an ambassador who served under both Obama and Donald Trump's first administration.