This morning, Trump made his nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. Here’s what this nomination tell us.
All cabinet appointments carry with them power and prestige, but four carry with them more of each than the others — Chief of Staff, Attorney General, Defense, and State. Mainly because the COS is the tip of the sphere in setting the agenda and granting access to the oval office. The other 3 include the most policy power/bully pulpit in the executive branch other than the presidency itself.
If you look at whom Trump has appointed in this four slots you can see there is no ideological certainty there whatsoever. Jeff Sessions and General Mattis are exactly what grassroots conservatives, as well as “drain the swamp” populists, were looking for.
However, in Reince Priebus and Rex Tillerson you have two men that represent, to varying degrees, the exact kind of Republican Party that Trump often mocked and pilloried during his successful primary run. Two men who represent everything about the GOP loathed the most by Trump’s most loyal supporters.
For example, Priebus’ minions gave us the silly post-2012 autopsy, and were responsible for the scam that was the Mississippi U.S. Senate primary in 2014.
As for Tillerson from Exxon-Mobil, recall how Hillary Clinton’s business associations with shady foreign governments created questions during her time as Secretary of State. Well, Tillerson is cut from the same cloth. Two of his most ardent supporters are Dick Cheney and Condi Rice, whose “neocon” (as labeled by Trump’s supporters) foreign policy Trump trashed to much cheers during the primary. In fact, Rice is now a consultant for Exxon-Mobil, which has billions of dollars in business ties/interests with Russia. Tillerson was personally given a “friendship” medal by Putin, one of the world’s most corrupt/vile gangsters/dictators who’s beyond cozy with the crazy Ayatollahs in Iran.
Is that not the very perceived incestuousness among globalists/corporatists which Trump promised his supporters he would end?
Tillerson is an appointment which should be cheered by the Council on Foreign Relations, which many of Trump’s supporters frequently associate with conspiracy theories.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council also notes that while at Exxon-Mobil Tiller has been a supporter of Planned Parenthood, as well as lobbying the Boy Scouts to accept homosexual scout masters. Tillerson’s appointment doesn’t say “peace through strength” as conservatives typically believe, but rather “peace through shared vested interests” as progressives do.
In short, Tillerson could’ve been appointed SOS in a Hillary administration with this profile.
Personnel is policy, as Morton Blackwell at the Leadership Institute likes to say. That’s especially true when the leader calling the shots is as ideologically malleable as Trump has proven to be. The reality is we don’t yet have any real clues as to what these appointments may mean, because we don’t really know how Trump sees them.
Is he setting up his version of “a team of rivals” of the two dominant camps within the GOP, and pitting their best and brightest against one another in the hopes the cream rises to the top?
Is he himself undecided on what direction to go, so he’s splitting the baby in half, knowing that he has no problems changing horses in midstream if it doesn’t work out (as we saw in the campaign)?
Or is this a sign that Trump still has many of the liberal leanings he’s long had prior to his run for the GOP nomination, but he’s been convinced conservatives are indeed right about a few things like immigration, so these appointments are simply a reflection of the hodge podge that is his own worldview?
We simply don’t know. So just as we were once told we had to pass Obamacare to see what’s in it, we now have to inaugurate Trump to see what these appointments truly mean. There is little doubt Trump’s cabinet, despite these troubling questions, is “better” for conservatives than what we would’ve seen had Hillary won. Despite the fact it’s really not that much different from what we would’ve gotten had Jeb Bush won instead.
Yet whether “better” actually turns out to be “good” government will be up to Trump.
- Discussion
-
My thoughts on @realDonaldTrump nominating #Tillerson and the makeup of his cabinet:https://t.co/CyVgGexPL0
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) December 13, 2016
Trump supporters like to tell us that he will be different from past presidents. Well, judging from his cabinet nominees, it looks like these positions are once again going to friends, relatives, business associate, cronies and campaign supporters. He is no different from past presidents from both parties who use these jobs as rewards without regard to whether the prospective candidate is right for the job.
So much for draining the swamp.
What we need as SOS is a tough guy who can diligently represent our interests, who is not afraid to go after our enemies, but who will at the same time embrace our friends. The last several SOSs have been too busy making nice to all the wrong people. And our country has been weakened as a result.
My thoughts really, as well. I really thought Trump should’ve given Cruz the AG position. To be honest, I thought Sessions would make a better running mate than Pence, although I like Pence…or did, until he betrayed us a couple summers back now. Not that he still is not a principled, guy, compared to some choices, but Sessions would’ve been better. I knew he wouldn’t choose Cruz. He didn’t want someone to hold his feet to the fire. Cruz has now worshipped at the feet of The Donald and he’ll get nada for it. It hurts me to see him grovel to Trump. He is negating all he stood for. Not through policy, but the groveling. If he stands up to Trump now, everyone will just shut him down.
Pray for righteousness to be restored and for the peace of Jerusalem
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.