Cabinet dysfunction

President-elect Donald Trump has quickly nominated most of his cabinet and White House staff. Instead of the allegedly qualified managers the Democrats claim they would have chosen to run the gigantic departments that make up the empire’s government and state bureaucracy, Trump has chosen an unsavory and incompetent collection of inane monsters. 

Their common characteristic is that they cater to Trump, or at least have done so recently. Those who criticized him after the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt have adjusted to the new reality. They are all enemies of the multinational working class. Together they bring so many contradictions to the new administration that late-night comedians joke about who Trump will fire first.

Rather than dwelling on nightmares hiding behind jokes, Workers World suggests that the anti-imperialist movement study each appointee’s weaknesses. Especially what their personalities reveal about the current weakness of U.S. imperialism. And that we act on every opening that allows us to mobilize resistance.

Battles may open up should these appointments be approved, battles within their departments and battles with the new president. Consider two of Trump’s most notorious nominees: Pete Hegseth to head the Defense Department and Robert F. Kennedy Jr to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Hegseth is a former Army National Guard captain who has been a weekend host on “FOX and Friends.” He once urged Trump to pardon three U.S. soldiers who committed war crimes when they murdered Iraqi civilians. He attacks some of the topmost U.S. generals for being too “woke” and said Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. got his job as chair of the Joint Chiefs only because he is Black. 

Generals may dislike taking orders from a CEO of industry; they hate taking orders from a captain. Pay close attention to any outbreak of conflict between this captain and his superior officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And prepare to mobilize against both sides.

Kennedy’s greatest fame, besides his family history, is as a vaccine denier, a science skeptic and a threat to the already feeble U.S. public health system. Kennedy also opposes the food industry practice of producing super-processed snacks. 

If RFK Jr actually tries to carry out his ideas, it will put him in conflict with the pharmaceutical industry. During the Covid-19 crisis, the first Trump administration subsidized the pharmaceuticals’ research, and they flourished. Kennedy will also confront the foodstuff producers and their processed snacks. This too might lead to an opening for struggle — or Trump might just fire Kennedy.

Then there is Elon Musk, who bought his way inside Trump’s inner circle. Trump has created a position in the newly established “Department of Government Efficiency” for Musk, currently the richest person in the world. 

Musk has reportedly been hanging out at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat with the president-elect. Along with pharmaceuticals capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy, himself a billionaire, Musk will recommend cutting government programs they deem unnecessary — it’s easy to imagine which ones.

One wonders, however, how long a mutual admiration society can last between individuals who each think they’re the greatest. We’ll see.

Unfortunately, we can’t plan on this collection of scoundrels to self-destruct. We have to be ready to mobilize wherever we can to expose their policies and that of the new administration. 

But if the new administration unleashes a wave of infighting in the ruling class, we must also be ready to find a way to use their mutual attacks to build a mass struggle against both sides. And we must mobilize this struggle while maintaining political and organizational independence from the two ruling-class factions — MAGA or neocon establishment, Republican or Democrat. It won’t be easy, but it will be possible.