No American president before Donald Trump was so guided by the principle of total loyalty when choosing people for the top of its administration, the interlocutors of "Vremen", researcher of the Center for American Studies Vukašin Zorić and researcher of the "Henry Jackson" Institute, Helena Ivanov, agree.
"It seems that Trump's administration will be very different from the one he created in 2016 when he surrounded himself with a team that was partly composed of experienced mainstream Republicans, while the new team features names that seem to be valued against loyalty to Trump and the usefulness they showed in the campaign", evaluates Zorić.
He also recalls the announcements that Fox News journalist Pete Hegsett will be the Secretary of Defense, and that Matt Gaetz, "problematic for many reasons, and very loyal to Trump", was nominated as a candidate for Attorney General.
Goetz was nominated at a time when the House Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that the Florida congressman was accused of sexual abuse and drug use, as well as having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Although Goetz denied the accusations, his nomination became increasingly controversial in the public eye, and he decided to withdraw.
"There is no time to waste on unnecessarily long arguments in Washington, so I will withdraw my name from consideration for attorney general." "Trump's Department of Justice must be ready from day one," Gaetz wrote on the X social network.
Zorić also reminds that he will take the position of Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr, who had very controversial statements about vaccination.
"The Greatest US Conflict of Interest of All Time"
He adds that Trump's allies in the campaign, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, will get a completely new office, i.e. the Department for Government Efficiency, which will practically give them a free hand to control employees in the administration.
"It's the biggest conflict of interest in the US of all time, because Musk will be overseeing the people who should be overseeing his funding from the Government budget," says Zoric.
He estimates that the announcement that Kennedy will be the Secretary of State for Health is not a surprise, because it is most likely part of the pre-election agreement between him and Trump.
"Kennedy withdrew from the race for the US president, in which he wanted to participate as a third candidate, after agreeing with Trump that the latter would support him for an important position in the future administration. "Kennedy agreed to give his voters to Trump and thus help him win, and in return it was announced that he would get the secretary of health," says Zoric.
Such selection of loyalists is not new, because previously American presidents have chosen people close to them to the administration, who have qualified for high government positions with proven loyalty.
"However, in this case, the disproportion between loyalty to Trump and competence to perform a certain function is emphasized. Previously, you could see a loyal lawyer at the head of the prosecution, who, in addition to his loyalty to the president, also had experience in the department in which he will perform public office. Here we see that that experience is not paramount, but it is emphasized that loyalty to Trump is extremely important," Zoric points out.
Service for service
Ivanov also mentions the favor that Trump returned to Kennedy because he left his voters to him.
"Kennedy gave up his candidacy and decided to support Trump." At the very end of the campaign, he was very involved and fully supported Trump towards the very end of the election race, when it was said that it was very close and that even the voters of the independent candidate could turn things in Trump's favor. "Trump saw it as a proof of complete loyalty," says Ivanov.
She points out that all American presidents to a certain extent chose people they believed would be loyal to them, and that it was just a question of how naked they did it and how willing they were to violate institutional principles in the process of their appointments.
"Nevertheless, I don't think that Donald Trump's predecessors chose such controversial people as Kennedy or Matt Getz, who is being investigated for sexual harassment," Ivanov concluded and added:
"Since there is no certainty that the Senate will confirm their appointments, Trump is trying to do it until the Senate is in session and thus use the legal loophole in order not to appoint the people he envisioned. Trump chooses loyalists more than his predecessors, in a more stripped-down and even crass way, but I don't think any American or world politician has chosen people who he thought would not be loyal to him."
