By Don Schmitz

President-Elect Donald Trump rapidly picked his 15 top cabinet positions within three weeks, and just as rapidly many Democrats and the ever-shrinking media began to lament them. Joe Biden didn’t fill his cabinet until April, six months after the election and four months after taking the oath of office. Evident to everyone is that the Trump team is well-organized for appointments, executive orders, and policies. They will hit the ground running and are in fact already effectuating enormous changes globally.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to meet with Trump at Mar a Lago to discuss tariffs and immigration, Mexico is suddenly dispersing up and sending home caravans of illegal migrants, both Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinsky and Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed openness to a Trump-brokered peace deal, Hezbollah has agreed to a peace deal with Israel, and Hamas suddenly seems open to a peace deal centered around releasing the hostages, seven of which are Americans. At the GOP Convention Trump warned: “To the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.” There is a new sheriff in town.

Domestically this is also true. Trump is utterly transparent on his agenda, videotaping before the election his policies on ensuring free speech, protecting and enhancing our 2nd Amendment rights, unleashing our energy potential, moving manufacturing back onshore, building the border wall while deporting the millions of illegal aliens that are here, and, importantly, cleaning out the waste and corruption in Washington, D.C., agencies. Americans knew exactly what they were voting for, and he intends to deliver, but don’t expect the loyal opposition (Republicans and Democrats) to go quietly into the night.

The Senate confirmation process of cabinet choices is the first opening round of “the resistance.” Trump, the ultimate outsider in D.C. politics and the oldest person to assume the presidency, is tapping into a younger generation of millennials for his cabinet, most in their 40s, whereas Biden only had one. They are long-term allies deeply committed to changing the status quo, which is terrifying to the statists. Watch as the establishment trots out every innuendo and smear campaign they can muster to derail where they can.

Linda McMahon will chair the Department of Education, a fierce advocate of parents’ rights and school choice. She will reverse Title IX changes allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports, squelch DEI, and use federal funding to pressure schools to teach civics and provide a more patriotic curriculum, which up to 70 percent of Americans support. Trump intends to dismantle this department formed in 1979 and return authority and funding to the states. A Hoover institute study found “In the United States, stagnation if not decline has been apparent at least since the 1970s. Even our high school graduation rates are lower today than they were a decade ago.” They squandered trillions and failed.

Doug Burgum will be Secretary of the Interior, who along with Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy, will roll back the Biden policies squelching production of American oil and gas, heading a National Energy Council. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will lead Homeland Security, working with firebrand Tom Homan, who used to lead ICE. They will build the border wall, deport millions of illegal aliens, and will hold legally accountable sanctuary states, and cities that defy federal law. Ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabard will be director of National Intelligence. In 2016, she ran for president against Hillary Clinton, who accused her of being a Russian asset. Bernie Sanders, who was also running for the Democratic nomination retorted, “Tulsi Gabbard has put her life on the line to defend this country. People can disagree on issues, but it is outrageous for anyone to suggest that Tulsi is a foreign asset.” This type of sleazy slandering is common in Washington, and it is already being leveled against Gabbard and other appointments.

Feeding the narrative is that to date, Trump is not allowing the FBI to vet some of the nominations, using private firms instead. FBI distrust runs deep with Trump and his allies, after disgraced FBI Director James Comey and fired Deputy Director Andrew McCabe spied on the 2016 Trump campaign, leaked classified documents, submitted false FISA warrants, and lied to federal investigators under oath in a political vendetta against Trump in the Russian collusion hoax, all of which was documented in Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report to Congress. Trump chose federal prosecutor Kash Patel, who exposed the Russian collusion hoax as director of the FBI, to root out abuses like spying on Catholics at church, parents speaking out at school board meetings, and politicians they oppose. The federal agencies are being brought to heel; expect them and the politicians who empowered them to resist with everything they can muster. Don’t be deceived.

Read the “On the Left’s take by Lance Simmens.

By Lance Simmens

For the uninitiated, the grand majority of individuals who have never had the privilege of being vetted while seeking a federal government senior-level appointed position, it is important to have access to secret information that could be usedagainst the nation and the governmental infrastructure that supports it. According to the organization Americans ForTax Fairness, “President-Elect Donald Trump, a billionaire himself, is stocking his new administration with an extraordinary number of billionaires and multimillionaires who bring a slew of potential conflicts of interest to their jobs. These appointees have a clear incentive to pursue economic policies that further enrich themselves, their rich friends and especially their boss. The question is whether the needs of hard-working families will get any attention in the incoming administration’s policy-making process … that amounts to over $313 billion.”

So why in the world does the Trump Administration reject and try to abandon the carefully laid out vetting protocols that are used to ensure that potential appointees who are essentially the guardians of our nation and economy? What is it that they are trying to hide? Why is their reluctance to practice an open-door policy on the veracity of this protected class of individuals?

I will never forget the anxiousness I felt when I was vetted for a top-secret security clearance when I was hired by the U.S. Senate Budget Committee in 1981, particularly when I was apprised that the FBI was snooping around my old college haunts and questioning my character before folks who I had already forgotten. I will never forget when I was summoned to the District of Columbia Navy Yard by the Defense Intelligence Agency to what would be a three-hour grilling that involved marijuana use and my careful dancing around the issue until finally caving in. I got the clearance anyway but sweated out a couple of weeks.

Today, we are witnessing a rather forceful rejection by the incoming administration to a need for the vetting process that already has achieved casualty to a former congressman who has been pressured to quit his job and pull back his appointment. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Several other appointees have been thrown into the stew that, by all indications, are of highly questionable character, and there is tricky maneuverability under discussion to derive ways to appoint without Senate confirmation. To what great lengths will those representing the Trump Administration go to get their fealty solidified as true believers in the individual who himself is a convicted felon?

Matt Gaetz’s failure to measure up to the attorney general position has clearly shown how important the vetting process is, strong enough to knock out those who attempt to circumvent the scrutiny of a detailed investigation. But there are others who raise substantial questions about their veracity. Peter Hegseth, picked to be secretary of defense, is having to address an allegation of sexual assault. One would not be blindsided to the Republican legislators who will have to pick whether they wish to turn the other cheek or muster the courage to deny his appointment.  

And then there is Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, who has been picked to be the Director Of National Intelligence, who in 2017 met with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and her pro-Russian and pro-Putin rhetoric in 2015 where she stated “Al-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. Obama won’t bomb them in Syria. Putin did. #neverforget911.”

Then there is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chosen as an appointee for Secretary of Health and Human Services where, despite having absolutely no medical qualifications, he would have broad authority over U.S. federal health agencies — including those that oversee approval of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. There has been speculation about his inability to pass a background check for security clearance due to past controversies, including dumping a bear carcass in New York’sCentral Park.

In 2018, Penelope Hegseth wrote her son an email in which she laid into him for poor behavior and disrespect toward women. “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself …,” she said.

The vetting process would have surely caught these issues. The Trump Administration was reportedly “blindsided” by these details, but one sure-fire way not to be thrown off guard is to have in place an operational and effective vetting process.

There are five essential priorities for addressing the vetting process, according to a “Primer for Navigating the Presidential Appointee Vetting and Confirmation Process,” according to the esteemed Covington & Burling LLP legal firm that address the nearly quarter of the 4,000 positions filled by presidential appointment and require Senate confirmation: Tax Issues; Ethics and Financial Disclosure Requirements; Legal Proceedings, Investigations, and Drug Use; Publications and Organizational Affiliations; and Medical, Family, and Personal Issues.  

The vetting process more than adequately deals with creating the type of atmosphere that is essential to accommodating the hiring of quality individuals to manage our national government. It is in current operation and comports with the issue of satisfying both political and policy needs. To deny its usefulness by forgoing the imperative to satisfy the needs of the people would be dangerous. The Republican Party is in control of the House, the Senate, the Executive Office and the Supreme Court, hence rendering the ultimate responsibility to protect the will of the people and their faith in and respect for their government and the institutions that affect their everyday lives. To ignore or circumvent such an important and necessary check and balance represents neglect of the highest order.

Read the “On the Right’s” take by Don Schmitz.