Donald Trump has learnt at least one thing from a previous Republican president: in wrong-footing your enemies, shock and awe are the best tactics, as George Bush found in Iraq. Mr Trump’s speed in nominating almost all his cabinet and senior administration officials within ten days of his election has left much of Washington in awe at his determination to move extremely quickly when he takes office. But his choices have shocked the Democrats and left even established Republican politicians bewildered. They include some with almost no political experience, others who espouse views widely seen as cranky and another who has unsavoury allegations of sexual misbehaviour trailing behind him.
The impression Mr Trump clearly wishes to give is that he is in a hurry not only to deliver his radical programme for America but to shake up American government in a way not seen for generations. Most of those nominated are iconoclasts who seem to disdain the departments they will oversee. Pete Hegseth, a television news host moving to the Pentagon with no strategic experience, has denounced what he calls the “woke” culture and the emphasis on diversity in the defence department; Tulsi Gabbard, the overtly pro-Russian new director of national intelligence, has claimed that “spooks” were set on her by the CIA; Robert Kennedy Jr, the eccentric nephew of the former president, has denounced the vaccination programme spearheaded during the pandemic by the health department, which he will now direct.
Perhaps the most controversial, Matt Gaetz, a far-right conservative nominated as the attorney-general, is facing a congressional ethics inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct. His task is clear: he is to quash all the federal charges levied against Mr Trump, purge the department of liberal judges and ensure that his office does not raise objections to promised controversial measures that are bound to run into legal obstacles such as the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
Overwhelmingly, Mr Trump’s appointees have been picked for their loyalty to him. Those aghast at some of the names — and there are many — should know that when the electorate voted decisively for Mr Trump, it also voted for the radical programme that he promised to implement.
If there is any doubt over the president-elect’s readiness to dismantle structures and budgets he regards as obstacles to making America great, Elon Musk, the billionaire, is ready in his new role to cut government spending by $2 trillion. That is something that more pusillanimous Democrats hesitated to do, despite the evidence of waste, and for which even European governments may feel some sympathy. They will, however, more readily welcome Mr Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who may be more adroit in implementing policies seen abroad as isolationist.
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Mr Trump has proposed the appointments are made with the Senate in recess, so that they will not face hostile confirmation hearings. This has upset even conservative commentators. The Wall Street Journal calls the idea anti-constitutional, saying it would eliminate a basic check on power built into the US system of government. But Mr Trump knows that he has really only two years to get his programme through, the maximum period for these recess appointments. By then, in any case, he may have sacked many of them. In going for bust, shock tactics will begin on day one.
