Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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Opinion

Trump’s loyal cabinet picks to drive his policy agenda

Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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The prospective nominees for key cabinet positions in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration have taken Congress by surprise and have triggered alarms from both Democrats and Republicans. Unlike in 2016, when Trump initially assumed office, he is steering clear of anyone he deems insufficiently loyal.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten explains why Trump is prioritizing loyalty in these nominations to ensure that his agenda is carried out.


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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

This is precisely why Trump and his transition have emphasized loyalty as perhaps the key criteria for candidates looking to serve in his second administration. The media frames this in bad faith, characterizing loyal staffers as toadies who will rubber-stamp lawless acts. But loyalty means fidelity to the president’s agenda and dogged devotion to helping him execute the mandate for which we voted in the face of staunch opposition. This should be the bare minimum of what is required of personnel. It’s what every administration would expect of its staffers.

What the media is implicitly saying, in referring to loyalty pejoratively, is that they want Trump to hire disloyal appointees who will subvert the duly elected president to prevent the American people from getting the policies we voted for. The fear in truth is that if Americans get what we want, the ruling class will lose its power, prerogatives and privileges. Every day, the incoming Trump administration will face resistance from uni-party congressmen, establishment judges, blue states, corporate media, popular cultural institutions and beyond. But the first point of friction will always be with the leviathan administrative state.

Permanent Washington is hysterical in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, federal bureaucrats wrestle with fight or flight. Response to Trump election reads one headline, just as Department officials are terrified, according to another one, fearing they may be sidelined, fired or unable to resist, as they did during the President’s first term. Pentagon officials are reportedly preparing their response to orders to deploy active duty troops domestically and fire large swathes of purportedly apolitical staffers. Another dispatch reveals President Trump’s less conventional nominees who only put the Feds further on edge, as unhinged as the beltway’s response seems, one would be wrong to dismiss it as a temper tantrum from the Trump deranged instead, this teeth gnashing foreshadows the bloodiest political battle the Trump administration will face in its coming war to restore Americans control over our republic. First and foremost among the armies it will face is the administrative state, an unconstitutional fourth branch of government that has usurped and combined the powers of the other branches. That’s tyranny defined the bureaucrats believe they know better than us, and that therefore they must substitute their policy preferences for our own, who we vote for then won’t matter, because the policy predilections of the executive agencies in name only must prevail. This is the true threat to democracy, and it exploded into public view with the resistance during the Trump one administration, the Trump two administration was elected as the antidote to make radical, not incremental, changes in personnel and policy and make the people sovereign again. Our ruling regimes fear that Americans would self govern rather than remain subjects. Explains why the President faced impeachments, indictments and assassination attempts. The loudest How is against Trump today come from some of the institutions that have most dangerously broken the social contract with the public, namely, in the deep state, the DOJ led the law fare Inquisition against Trump and his confidants, Jan six protesters, pro lifers, practicing Catholics and engaged parents. It has effectively criminalized dissent from regime orthodoxy, a hyper politicized and weaponized DOJ something President Trump’s nominee for attorney general rep Matt Gaetz has both exposed and been targeted by himself, is the death knell of the rule of law and justice in this country. DOD is politicization at its highest levels is equally disturbing. It’s not just its wokeness and diminished standards that have eroded the lethality of our fighting forces, as Secretary of Defense nominee Pete hegseth has harped on, but as recent reporting suggests, we also face an apparent crisis of insubordination that invites enemies to test us. The insinuation in reporting, in a letter from outgoing defense secretary Lloyd Austin, is that unlawful orders, rather than simply disfavored policies, might be forthcoming and that the military would disobey them. Resistance efforts, of course, are likely to span far beyond these agencies as James shirk, one of Trump’s key civil service reform advisors during his first term, as detailed then bureaucrats government wide, commonly subverted the President’s policies through withholding information, refusing to implement policies, intentionally delaying our slow walking priorities, deliberately underperforming, leaking to Congress and the media, and outright insubordination. This is precisely why Trump and his transition have emphasized loyalty as perhaps the key criteria for candidates looking to serve in his second administration. The media frames this in bad faith, characterizing loyal staffers as toadies who will rubber stamp lawless acts. But loyalty means fidelity to the President’s agenda, dogged devotion to helping him execute the mandate for which we voted in the face of staunch opposition. This should be the bare minimum of what is required of personnel. It’s what every administration would expect of its staffers. What the media is implicitly saying, in referring to loyalty pejoratively, is that they want Trump to hire disloyal appointees who will subvert the duly elected president to prevent the American people from getting the policies we voted for. The fear in truth is that if Americans get what we want, the ruling class will lose its power, prerogatives and privileges. Every day the incoming Trump administration will face resistance from uni party congressmen, establishment judges, blue states, corporate media, popular cultural institutions and beyond. But the first point of friction will always be with the Leviathan administrative state. The task for the Trump administration then will be this, with limited appointees, political capital and time, and faced with a resistance that will engage in 1000 front war to nonetheless execute its agenda, the future of our Republic may well rest upon it

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