Commentary
As an optimist, I was delighted to read about the latest CBS/YouGov Poll showing that Americans are optimistic about Trump 2.0.
How could anyone not be optimistic, I thought, our president elect scored a victory in the electoral college and by popular vote. He has nominated competent individuals for his cabinet and advisory roles and has his transition team preparing to fulfill Day One and beyond promises.
Before I go on, I must tell you about a friend of mine, an avowed pessimist, who stands by the motto- Pessimists are never disappointed.
Personally, I’m a glass half-full person. I like the quote: Optimism is one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.
But I digress.
The CBS poll revealed that “a majority of Americans overall are either happy or at least satisfied that he won and are either excited or optimistic about what he’ll do.”
His selections for agency heads and cabinet posts were rated overwhelming as “good choices” with high marks going to initial nominations. Marco Rubio (75 percent), Robert F. Kennedy Jr, (80 percent), Pete Hegseth (64 percent), and Tulsi Gabbard (71 percent).
“President Elect Trump would seem to have the wind at his back in terms of approval,” according to RedState, “with 59 percent of those survey approving of his handling of the transition thus far.”
An Evolving Believer
I’ve watched commentator and fellow blogger Ben Domenech become more approving of the Trump transition. In his November 11, 2024, piece, “Dreams of an Orderly Trump Transition are Slipping Away,” he recalled Trump’s first transition with the clamoring of people scrambling for jobs in the administration, when Trump was given a slate of candidates for key jobs. Trump didn’t know most of those vying for positions.
During the 2024 campaign, we learned that it would be different this time around. He got to know a number of people and his picks were going to be among individuals who supported his America first agenda and gave evidence of their loyalty.
Less than two weeks later, Domenech bylined, “Trump 47 is transforming what a cabinet means,” in The Spectator, in which he wrote about the reaction in Republican circles about his nominees, noting that they range from the exuberant, to the somewhat skeptical, to the truly head-scratching, to, in one case, outright disgust.
“But what’s happening now is a clearer picture of what Trump 47 has as an idea of his cabinet – and it’s for more consistent, and potentially transformative, than some observers currently seem to appreciate.
The cabinet Donald Trump has assembled as a wealth of experience doing battle on a different front: through a rapidly changing media and communications environment which proved so key to Trump’s own success in 2024.
“Look across the range of nominees and its obvious what nearly all of them have in common: they are communicators, not administrators.
Someone Who Knows
I found Kevin Haggerty’s commentary about the views of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich celebrating a few of the president elect’s key nominations column in American Wire News interesting.
Referring to Trump’s “amazing team,” Gingrich addressed the “enormous courage” needed for a “complete overhaul.”
While citing the meltdown by leftists over the picks, because of the threat they envision to the status quo, Gingrich was high on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency, the selection of Tom Homan to tackle immigrations and Pete Hegseth to take on the waste and inefficiency of the Pentagon.
In a separate column, Haggerty quoted Undersecretary of Defense Michael McCord, controller and chief financial officer for the Pentagon, detailing how the DOD has been unable to properly account for how a budget of more than $825 billion was spent, according to the 2024 fiscal year full financial statement audit.
Though legally obligated to conduct audits but has yet to achieve a clean audit since 2018 mandate of the first Trump administration. Get this: There are 28 entities conducting independent audits for the DOD.
Dustin Grage, writing on “X” under @GrageDustin said: “Never let anyone tell you that Pete Hegseth isn’t qualified when all they do is fail under the current regime.”
Further, commenting on the missing $825 billion, Factotum, writing on “X” under @emery_board, said: “Qualified” SecDefs gave us this.”
On the Negative Side
I was surprised and disappointed that Karl Rove felt the need to prematurely jump on the bandwagon of those critical of Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz even though his selection was probably ill-advised.
The headline on his Wall Street Journal column, “Trump Sends Clowns to Cabinet Confirming Circus,” which he undoubtedly did not write, combined with his jumping the gun on criticism of Trump’s choice of Gaetz, just gives Trump more “enemy media” ammunition.
I believed from the start that Gaetz would withdraw if he determined a fight for confirmation was going to be a distraction for Trump. It was bound to happen.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
