Commentary
As President Elect Trump announces his selections for cabinet and agency posts, Washinton bureaucrats are getting nervous. Many of them survived his first term swipe at the swamp, but they are aware he has learned a lot since then and aren’t sure they can survive this time around.
“Last time Trump was in office, we were all in survival mode with a hope for an end date,” said one State Department official, “Now there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”
As the left-leaning Politico reported, they know what’s coming, and are wrestling with the conflicting desire to stay in government and defend the mission of the agencies in which they work.
With the naming of Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, one staffer, aware of Trump’s “drill baby, drill” approach to energy policy, said, “I’m glad that I am retiring soon … EPA is toast.”
With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. selected to help “make America healthy again,” people in agencies like the Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are wary of what’s ahead.
Regular readers who know of my disgust with the Pentagon leadership, will understand my delight in hearing the choice of Fox’s Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. Lloyd Austin has to be spinning in his desk chair.
I assert that generals, retired or on active duty, are more concerned about the stars on their shoulders and their pensions, unwilling to say “no” to the president’s ideological themes.
In June, Hegseth’s book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” became a New York Times bestseller, he writes of the Biden administration’s shameful search for those with extreme views in the military and the introduction of DEI and Wokeness in the military academies.
In it, he says, “We can’t move away from it. We can’t avoid it. We have only one Pentagon. Either we take it back or surrender it altogether.”
Although South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been picked to head the Department of Homeland Security, the makeup of that organization could be changed in the Trump administration. Few people know that the Secret Service, FEMA, TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard fall under this agency in addition to a myriad of customs, immigration and border control organizations.
Trump has vowed to shut down the Department of Education, where nearly 5,000 employees control the nine percent of federal funds that go to the states, all of which has a long list of strings attached. Look for the states to get better control.
Few Americans, I believe, are unaware that Biden’s job creations last year resulted in nearly 25 percent of all job gains attributed to government positions with 86,000 jobs going to federal agencies.
Federal employment increases in 16 of the last 17 months were highest in the Postal Service, IRS and VA.
In the agencies of the swamp that clearly need cleaning out, Trump has named John Radcliffe to head the CIA. Radcliffe returns from Trump’s first term, when he was head of the DNI. Trump has yet to name key DOJ positions, including attorney general and a new head for the FBI.
Trump’s on a roll. Stay tuned.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
