Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Deflated by the resounding November defeat, the left now believes it can magically rebound by destroying Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Many of Trump’s picks are well outside the usual Washington, DC/New York political, media, and corporate nexus.
But that is precisely the point—to insert reformers into a bloated, incompetent, and weaponized government who are not part of it.
Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, is already drawing severe criticism.
His furious enemies cannot go after his resume, since he has spent a lifetime in private, congressional, and executive billets, both in investigations and intelligence.
Instead, they claim he is too vindictive and does not reflect the ethos of the FBI.
But what will Patel not do as the new director?
He will not serially lie under oath to federal investigators as did interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a current Patel critic.
He will not forge an FBI court affidavit, as did convicted felon and agency lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.
He will not claim amnesia 245 times under congressional oath to evade embarrassing admissions as did former Director James Comey.
He will not partner with a foreign national to collect dirt and subvert a presidential campaign as the FBI did with Christopher Steele in 2016.
He will not use the FBI to draft social media to suppress news unfavorable to a presidential candidate on the eve of an election.
He would not have suppressed FBI knowledge that Hunter Biden’s laptop was genuine—to allow the lie to spread that it was “Russian disinformation” on the eve of the 2020 election.
He will not raid the home of an ex-president with SWAT teams, surveil Catholics, monitor parents at school board meetings, or go after pro-life peaceful protestors.
Decorated combat veteran Pete Hegseth is another controversial nominee for secretary of defense.
What will Hegseth likely not do?
Go AWOL without notifying the president of a serious medical procedure as did current Secretary Lloyd Austin?
Install race and gender criteria for promotion and mandate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training?
Insinuate falsely that cabals of white supremacists had infiltrated the military—only to alienate that entire demographic and thus ensure the Pentagon came up 40,000 recruits short?
Oversee the scramble from Kabul that saw $50 billion in U.S. military equipment abandoned to Taliban terrorists?
Watch passively as a Chinese spy balloon traversed the continental United States for a week?
Allow the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to promise his Chinese communist counterpart that the People’s Liberation Army would first be informed if the President of the United States was felt to issue a dangerous order?
Rotate into the Pentagon from a defense contractor boardship and then leave office to rotate back there to leverage procurement decisions?
Oversee the Pentagon’s serial flunking of fiscal audits?
Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is certainly a maverick. He may earn the most Democratic hits, given his former liberal credentials.
But what will RFK also not do as HHS secretary?
Oversee his agencies circumventing U.S. law by transferring money to communist China to help it produce lethal gain-of-function viruses of the COVID-19 sort—in the manner of Dr. Fauci?
Organize scientists to go after critics of mandatory masking and defame them?
Give pharmaceutical companies near-lifetime exemptions from legal jeopardy for rushing into production mRNA vaccines not traditionally vetted and tested?
Leave office to monetize his HHS expertise and thus make millions from the pharmaceutical companies?
Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, former congressional representative and military veteran Tulsi Gabbard, will soon be defamed in congressional hearings.
But what has Gabbard not done?
Joined “51 former intelligence authorities” to lie on the eve of the 2020 election that the Hunter Biden laptop “had all the hallmarks” of a Russian information/disinformation operation”—in an effort to swing the election to incumbent Joe Biden?
Lied under congressional oath like former DNI James Clapper, who claimed he only gave the “least untruthful answer” in congressional testimony?
Encourage the FBI to monitor a presidential campaign in efforts to discredit it—in the manner of former CIA Director John Brennan, who lied not once but twice under oath?
Fail to foresee the American meltdown in Kabul, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, or the Houthis takeover of the Red Sea?
We are going to hear some outrageous things in the upcoming congressional confirmation hearings.
But one thing we will not hear about are the crimes, deceptions, and utter incompetence of prior and current government grandees.
The current crew, not their proposed Trump replacements, prompted the sick and tired American people to demand different people.
Voters want novel approaches to reform a government that they not only no longer trust but also now deeply fear.
TIME FOR THE REPUBLICANS TO GET A BACKBONE AND PLAY HARD BALL WITH THE CROOKS/DEMORATS!!
WE THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN AND ITS YOUR JOB TO GET IT DONE!!!!
AND THE RINOS NEED TO GO TO THE HOUSE!!!!
Absolutely
Great points that few are talking about. Thank you VDH.
#RIGHTON
VDH, why did you stop where you did? The entirety of the Trump appointee list will NOT be “undocumented criminals, liars and thieves”!
I would LOVE to read your next 10 episodes in this series.
The level of hyper-emotional tantrums from the MSM and from swamp-dwelling Republicans over Trump’s candidates is the true measure of how frightened opponents are, and how effective the candidates will be in their respective offices
VDH –
One-hundred percent accurate with your assessment of Trump’s nominees. I think if a liberal Democrat just happened – by chance – to read this column, then they would be so unmoved and detached that they would doze off like ol’ Joe in Angola.
Keep up the great work!
Most commentators think/hope that Hegseth will not pass congressional approval – based primarily on more of the same…. Nameless sources. Time to take control based on recent red wave and get Pete approved as next SecDef! Keep fighting Pete…
DRAIN THE SWAMP of Democrat Patronage (that is what our government has dome to). Stop tax-sheltering or -paying non[sic] profits. Allow ONLY U. S. human citizens to contribute to political campaigns, and stop the biased-media from being biased.
*These nominees also will not leverage a shadow smear campaign against Republican Senators to force their confirmation. In fact the opposite is true.
Succinctly stated, and true. The corruption of this current “government” cannot be overstated.
Small point but Joe Biden was not an “incumbent” during the 2020 election campaign.
{See the paragraph on Tulsi Gabbard below}
Joined “51 former intelligence authorities” to lie on the eve of the 2020 election that the Hunter Biden laptop “had all the hallmarks” of a Russian information/disinformation operation”—in an effort to swing the election to incumbent Joe Biden?
Beautifully delineated. I only wish it had been in my possession at Thanksgiving dinner.
Tulsi Gabbard is a DEMOCRAT. She left the party because they no longer wanted to back her. Look at the percentage of times where she voted along party lines. When she did not vote along the lines, she voted “present”. She should not hold a position on the cabinet. Let her be the ambassador to Shri Lanka where she will do no harm.
Read her biography and then rethink your comments.
Someone should send to Joni earnst
Better yet, VDH should call her. Sounds like she may get primaried if she keeps this up.
I think you should construct and propose a test for anyone running for office.
VDH, you are the best political writer out there, I look forward to your articles.
One the biggest problems MAGA faces are from the moderates and liberals in our own party. We know who they are and they need to be primaried, re-called, etc. These hearings will certainly bring most of them into the light.
They are pathetic!
Brilliantly done elucidation of the past corrupt 4 years. Thank you for the recap, VDH!
Thank You VDH.
Spot on as usual VDH. But we need not worry about “those things” you mention those folks are NOT going to do. I am however very worried about those same people NOT, pursuing, exposing, and severely punishing, the blatant obviously traitorous acts of those who have been committing such for most of my lifetime.
Because, if that does not happen then the same group will continue their evil treachery until they finally succeed in tearing the USA down to unrecognizable rubble. How’s about a short examination of that subject?
IMO the Democrats will likely double down on the “Resistance” Pelosi et al employed in 2017-2020.
“It’s his [Trump’s] same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”
-Michelle Obama at the Democrat Convention in August 2024:
A far cry from her 2016 “When they go low, we’ll go high!”.
The rest, including Harris, Walz, couldn’t say Hitler, facist, racist, sexist often enough – it was repeated hundreds of time per day throughout the entire 2024 election, with media amplification.
Democrats showed how low they will go during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
The 2024 election is over. Going forward, voters, and Republican politicians had best remember the last 8 years – the serial abuses of government institutional power, censoring free speech, lawfare, the lawless open border, excretable foreign policy…the list goes on.
The Democrat party hasn’t changed as a result of the 2024 election. It’s apparent they have no understanding of how out of touch they are with voters. It will take a shellacking in the 2026 mid-terms to bring the Democrat party to account.
Voters did their part in 2024 – and IMO will stand ready again in the 2026 mid-terms – if Republicans can operate without backbiting, backstabbing, and periodically going over to the other side for personal gain – the Republicans need to get Trump’s agenda through the next two years and beyond.
I was disappointed with Tulsi Gabbard life, influence and tenure in Hawaii. She let the sugar mill die of Old age. Some institutions should be revived, given there Life back because they benefit the State of Hawaii and the 50,000 people connected to the Sugar Mill. The benefits to the Hawaii people far exceed the 1/2 cent cost to the USA tax paying population. Let’s waste money on the USA population instead of endless wars.
I guess you are in the sugar business. Maybe others had a hand in the demise of a sugar mill. I doubt if she had yes or no power in the matter.
Republican Senators are well advised to show some unity. Confirm all the nominations and let them do their thing. It’s what the people were told they would get and what they voted for. Bring it in.
Pete Hegseth et al MUST be fought for and confirmed—having lost Gaetz early in the process, we need the ‘win’ of the confirmation of the remaining nominees as a show of steely grit and determination that this time around, a Trump administration is ready and more importantly able to deliver on its promises to voters.
“Voters want novel approaches to reform a government that they not only no longer trust but also now deeply fear.”
Sadly there is not an American majority in Congress. Nearly all Democrats and most Republicans are statists and effectively in sync with the Progressive march to ascendancy in US governance. Those who reflect wistfully on the Founder’s republic know that the remnants resemble the original largely in name only. The battle is now truly joined for the first time in my life with enough Americans on board to make a difference. But the election was just the beginning.
I would submit that Americans deeply distrust and even despise, but not fear, US national governance. Wars are never won by those who deeply fear their opponents.
Mr. Hanson, If you keep hitting us on the left with the cold light of truth, we are going to ask you to stop writing. We have friends in the justice department that can help with this effort.
Off the Record: Keep up the good work.
We need to begin immediate recall efforts for any Senator who fails to approve these nominees. A good indication of how they will or will not support other voter mandated Trump changes. The same goes for any member of Congress who stands in the way of the legislative changes demanded by the American people. I have no interest in waiting till the midterms to eliminate any elected official who puts their own agenda ahead of the people’s agenda.
Here in Australia deflated by a resounding majority of Australians voting no to another voice for the indigenous in Parliament, leftards are moving into the education field angrily sprouting radical indigenous comments such as change the date of Australia Day or erase it entirely. They are very powerful though in education and I do wonder what can be done about their power in the unions.