Victor Davis Hanson
The Prerequisites for Trump Nominees
So, if the traditional criteria for high government positions do not much matter to Trump, what does?
There are many requirements for a Trump nominee—loyalty, competence, energy, communication skills, and in some cases prior business success.
But one plus is clear and prior demonization by the very agency or bureau the Trump nominee will now head.
Tulsi Gabbard will likely become Director of National Intelligence—and perhaps because she was for a short time put on the Transportation Security Administration’s watch list. That targeting of her as a virtual terrorist sympathizer meant Gabbard of all people was subject to additional security screening before flights, apparently because some sort of strange algorithm flagged her various government trips to Asia and Europe and concluded she was a potential terrorist risk—or, as her critics now smear her, a “Russian asset.”
Pete Hegseth’s book, The War on Warriors, is a scathing attack on the Pentagon—and its DEI/woke/faddish agendas—that he is slated to direct. He has accurately pointed out the dangers of revolving-door generals and their perversions of the procurement process that lead to far too few, far too expensive, and far too vulnerable weapons systems rather than the acquisition of plentiful, simpler, and cheaper drone- and AI-type munitions. And why would not the Pentagon fear someone from the rank and file who argues that we now lose wars not because of our soldiers but because of those who lead them?
RFK, Jr. was demonized by the health establishment and the appendages of Health and Human Services as an established crank anti-vaxxer, fixated on banning high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives in food, and on a vendetta against Anthony Fauci.
So?
Trump puts him in charge of the very bureaucracy that despises him.
For three years, soft-spoken Stanford healthcare-policy expert (PhD in economics and MD) Dr. Jay Bhattacharya went, in the medical establishment’s view, from a highly respected professor and researcher to a veritable crank who was censored by his medical school and faculty colleagues.
His crimes?
Bhattacharya dared (along with Drs. Scott Altas, Martin Kulldorff, and others) to doubt the wisdom of the Fauci/Collins/Birx absolute lockdown of the economy, and shutdown of K-12 schools. He questioned the deification of mandatory masks/social distancing policies and challenged the gospels of the serial mRNA booster program. Bhattacharya postulated that a Wuhan Chinese-run virology lab likely was responsible for producing the virus that caused COVID-19’s 50 million global deaths—when to say such truth was an apostasy.
And now?
Bhattacharya will head the National Institutes of Health which hands out $50 billion a year to healthcare researchers, among them many of the critics of Bhattacharya himself, including his Stanford colleagues who tried their best to ruin him and who traditionally win between $500-$700 million a year in grants from the NIH. Now some will be applying for such monies from an agency run by the scholar that they so vehemently tried to destroy.
Kash Patel, as mentioned, will run the FBI. That is an agency that monitored his communications when he worked for the House Intelligence Committee.
Patel’s crime?
He exposed to the public the FBI’s stealthy efforts to destroy the 2016 Trump campaign and later presidency by its role in fueling the Russian collusion hoax. Those who sought to libel and ruin Patel may soon traipse into his office to plead, “I never meant to spy on you, Kash. I was just following orders.”
The list could go on.
What is the logic of appointing the once-policed to be the new police?
These nominees, more than anyone, know the dangers, vindictiveness, and pettiness, of unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic grandees. And therefore, in theory, they will show a particular zeal in ensuring what happened to themselves does not occur to others like them. And they won’t mind taking on the supposedly untouchable icons of the administrative state such as “I am the science” Dr. Fauci.
And if the Trump prime directive is to cut out wasteful and bloated bureaucracies, then such prior critics and victims of these often-lawless agencies will naturally attract from within them prior dissidents and principled critics who were punished for being truthful and desiring reform.
In the Trump counter-revolution, shall the last become first, and the first—the last?
Discussion (6)
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I worry that Jay Bhattacharya is not the man for the job to clean up the NIH. He is too much of a gentleman. An honorable character that believes in clear scientific reasoning, sober honest discourse, cooperative problem solving. That's not the best choice for cleaning out the swamp. When you have an NIH FOIA office that is advising Fauci and his underling how to hide emails and information from FOIA requests, you need someone less trusting who thinks about how devious, manipulative, and backstabbing people can be. People will weaponize his previous persecution against him. They will accuse him of not trying to reform or correct an institution but in engaging in "retribution" and that might make him hesitate or refrain from taking the necessary ruthless steps needed to clear out the rot. My only hope is that he will take advantage his fellow Hoover Fellow, Scott Atlas, to get advise on the Washington DC power politics that makes university politics seem like a children's sandbox.
Stephen, As a Brit did you notice some of the stark differences between the British and American elections? On the 22nd May 2024 Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak calls for a general election to be held on the 4th July, 43 days later Labour wins a massive victory. On the 17th of July his Majesty King Charles III opens parliament and the shadow government slips into place and assumes power. There are no lengthy confirmation hearing dramas in the House of Lords. No one is forced to withdraw their nomination or has their name dragged through the muck. And the outgoing "lame duck" government doesn't have 77 days to cause as much mischief as possible in order to hamstring the new government and knee them in the bolox as they walk out the door. I think the primary difference between Britain and the U.S. is that your system has evolved and ours has not.
As an advocate of inductive reasoning, I'm surprised that you over-looked one of the most important contributions Jay Bhattacharya made in the early days of the pandemic. He dared to actually measure the prevalence of the disease in both L. A. and S. F. in February and March of 2020 by collecting data from volunteers. He demonstrated that about 2% of the sample groups in both places had already been exposed to the virus. This information was discredited on the basis that the sample consisted of volunteers and thus was not a random sample. But the key point was that the treatment of the disease was already beyond the nonsensical "contact tracing" approach, and yet the lockdowns, social distancing, and isolating Grandma on her death bed were imposed almost nationwide. Given that 1% or even 0.5% of the population of L. A. and S. F. numbered in tens of thousands, not single digits, the approach chosen can only be explained as political manipulations. By the way, many of today's "national polls" can be criticized on the same basis. Those who bother to reply to pollster are also "volunteers", and one must wonder about their motivations. The bigger issue is that our third-generation wokesters are basically cargo cultists, blindly copying the behaviors of their grandparents with no understanding of the underlying realities, limitations, and assumptions. They consequently embrace AI with the faith of fervent believers, as yet another example of their ignorance.
Great piece, thanks from the UK. This cabinet Trump is putting together is fascinating! I'm especially interested to see how Musk gets on.
A great article Victor!! and a great response Craig!
As always, thank you Victor! A corollary: the smashed shall be first and the first shall be smashed!