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Trump is a threat to national security [1]

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Date: 2025-01-06

Trump’s actions and statements since the election go far beyond what might be expected if he was only driven by narcissism and personal greed… simply looking to expand his many grifts. (Albeit there is certainly plenty of grift…everything from crypto to cologne.) But there seems to be much more than that going on here.

Donald Trump’s announced nominees for several crucial federal positions, as well as numerous public comments he has made relating to various international relations, are so extreme and potentially damaging to the country that one must seriously question whether his intent is to actually weaken and harm the United States. Below I describe half-dozen key examples.

1. Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense . Other than the spectacular failure of early nominee Gaetz for Attorney General, the nomination that has probably received the most public discussion is Pete Hegseth for Secretary of the Defense Department. Aside from the despicable personal conduct problems (e.g., alleged sexual misconduct including possible rape; repeated public drunkenness) and very questionable political beliefs (e.g., purportedly has tatoos associated with extremist white nationalist linkage; has called for “killing all Muslims”, etc.), his most clear threat to national security is that he has never managed any organization with more than a handful of employees - - and purportedly did a horrible job with two small veterans organizations that he did try to manage. This completely unqualified person would literally be in charge of the entire defense structure of the United States. Not only is that a clear risk to national security in terms of external threats, this is also someone who might be inclined to go along with Trump’s verbalized interest in mobilizing U.S. troops against domestic targets. One can imagine our adversaries like Putin being delighted at this choice.

2. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. While not receiving as much media attention as Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard may rank as the nominee with the most bipartisan concern. Her repeated acts and comments signaling sympathetic views toward Vladimir Putin, as well as other despicable tyrants like Bashar al-Assad of Syria, have caused even staunch republicans to have serious concern about putting this person to oversee all national intelligence gathering activities. The concern has been raised that she would be perceived by key allies as such a threat to disclosing secrets to Putin that other nations would refuse to share sensitive intelligence information with us. How could anyone concerned about U.S. national security support this choice? What is Trump’s intent with this?

3. Kash Patel for FBI Director. If one wanted to corrupt the FBI into a tool for a dictator to persecute his enemies, one could not imagine a more perfect choice than Kash Patel. He has literally published an extensive ‘hit list’ of “deep state” enemies he would like to see investigated, consisting overwhelmingly of current and former high ranking government officials. Imagine the internal turmoil and disruption that would produce in the U.S. if he attempts to take action along those lines. Once again, our adversaries like Putin would be delighted.

4. RFK Jr. for Director of Health and Human Services. Leaving aside for now his own quirky past, including heroin addiction, brain worms, and some bizarre fascination with large dead creatures… a prime first objection to this appointment would be his complete lack of any medical or health education. Then consider his beliefs in debunked conspiracy theories on subjects like HIV and AIDS, antidepressants, and autism. Finally, his truly dangerous opposition to vaccines. Not only is he completely unqualified to be Director of HHS, if his crazy beliefs were translated into action (or inaction) by the federal government to real health threats, that would be another serious threat to the wellbeing of the United States. Again, our international opponents must be laughing at this craziness.

Those four nominees have probably received the most media coverage for their remarkable inappropriateness to run those crucial government departments, but there are many more. I will just mention two more who are noteworthy because of their apparent inclination to destroy the agency they are nominated to run.

5. Former Rep. Billy Long as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Once again, we should begin with his incredible lack of qualifications to run such a technical government agency. Mr. Long never even graduated from college. Other than being a former Republican congressman from Missouri, he has run a couple small businesses (real estate and as a business and tax advisor) and has been an “auctioneer”. (Seriously!) The total lack of qualifications should be sufficient to prevent this nomination, but what is more ominous is that while a congressman, he co-sponsored legislation to wipe out much of the U.S. tax code!. So once again, Trump is essentially nominating someone who seems bound to destroy the agency he would be in charge of operating. (No doubt he caught the attention of Trump and his billionaire backers because his efforts included eliminating the estate tax and replacing the graduated income tax with a very regressive flat tax.) If an IRS commissioner, through incompetence or deliberate intent, seriously impeded the collection of tax revenues, it would create a major national economic crisis. Once again, opponents of the U.S. must be applauding.

6. Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education. Her nomination for this position should not be surprising, given that Trump himself has called for eliminating the Department of Education. Although she is most known as the co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, McMahon is a long-time advocate of school vouchers and privatization. The U.S. commitment to public education has been a bedrock of U.S. leadership for centuries. Decimating the U.S. public education system would also be celebrated by our international opponents.

Most of the rest of Trump’s announced nominees can best be classified as either economic elites devoted to protecting billionaire interests, various zealots chosen to push some particular right-wing agenda, or crude examples of nepotism or personal reward. Many of them frankly deserve some resistance, but for this essay I’ve just focused on six that present a serious threat to U.S. national and economic security.

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