Even since the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, the spoils system has played a big part in the president-elect picking his cabinet. Cabinet picks are now not necessarily selected because of credentials; instead, these individuals are often selected because they are a supporter of the winning party. President-elect Donald Trump’s picks have been no exception to this. Thus, people feel like there needs to be change in the way a President-elect fills his or her cabinet.
On this topic, sophomore Iman Aboud said, “We need to move past the spoils system because then the information the president is hearing is biased, and [he needs] to hear the information and consequence of their actions from both parties.” Sophomore Kennett Curtis said, “I think we should move towards a merit-based system of hiring because it makes sure that the most qualified people are selected for positions.” Grace Clausen, a sophomore, added, “We should move towards the merit system because the government should be run by people who are more qualified for the job than the people the president wants in his cabinet. The people who are more qualified will help to make the right decisions opposed to president [being] hired because they will most likely have a bias in the president’s favor. This might have a negative effect on the United States.” As of Friday, Nov. 29, some of President-elect Trump’s picks have been viewed as controversial. This list includes Elise Stefanik, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and more.
These picks have come with much controversy, especially around the very important position of U.S. Attorney General. Trump first picked Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general, and because of this announcement, Gaetz resigned from Congress. In March of 2024, Gaetz was issued a subpoena as a result of a woman he allegedly had sex with when she was a minor. This was re-speculated in the media once Gaetz was announced as Trump’s pick for attorney general. A couple of days later, Gaetz issued a statement on social media. According to a BBC News article titled “Former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s Attorney General Pick,” Matt Gaetz wrote, “It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.” Later in the statement, Gaetz also said that he would not be seeking reelection in Congress. Later that week, Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his new attorney general. According to an Associated Press article titled “Trump Chooses Loyalist Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick after Matt Gaetz Withdraws” (apnews.com), Bondi was one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment trial. Bondi was also in a group of Republicans who supported Trump in his New York “hush money” criminal case, which ended with a conviction and 34 felony counts.
For the position of Director of National Intelligence, Trump has picked Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard is a former Democratic Congresswoman who ran in the Democratic Presidential Primaries in the 2020 election. When running for the Democratic Party’s nomination in a primary debate, Gabbard ripped into then Senator Kamala Harris’s record as attorney general of California. According to an article from The New York Times entitled “Trump Chooses Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence” (nytimes.com), Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, who served in Iraq. She has been a longtime critic of the foreign policy establishment. In this position, Gabbard would be overseeing 18 spy agencies.
Trump has also nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be head of the Health and Human Services Department. This nomination has caused to many public health officials to feel very uneasy because of RFK’s vaccine skepticism. According to another article from The New York Times (nytimes.com) entitled “Trump Picks R.F.K. Jr. to Be Head of Health and Human Services Dept,” RFK has said that vaccines cause autism. He has also publicly contradicted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC.org) recommendation that communities put fluoride in their water to help guard against tooth decay. In a statement issued by President-elect Donald Trump, he said, “Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to the traditions of gold standard scientific research and beacons of transparency, to end the chronic disease epidemic, and to make America great and healthy again!”
Trump has picked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk made some comments on the campaign trail with President-elect Donald Trump that he would try to cut two trillion dollars from federal government’s budget. Ramaswamy ran in the 2024 Republican primaries and in a New Hampshire poll, was right behind Trump.
For these nominees to be confirmed, they need to pass through a confirmation hearing in the Senate. In very rare instances, a nominee has been failed to be confirmed.
