Trump Puts The Worst And The Dumbest In Charge

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When John F. Kennedy won the 1960 election, he brought a collection of industry leaders and academics with him to help run the country. One of them was Robert McNamara, who briefly served as the president of Ford Motor Company. They were known collectively as “whiz kids” who thought their education and training would help JFK govern in the most effective and efficient way possible. In 1972, journalist David Halberstram wrote a book about them which he called The Best And The Brightest, a title that may have subtly mocked the whiz kids, who pushed the United States into the Vietnam War for short-term political gain. In practice, they were neither especially good at running the government nor particularly smart about choosing which policies to advance. Now Donald Trump is assembling his own team to bring to Washington, a group united by one common denominator — a love for fossil fuels. Here are the ones we know about so far.

Secretary of State: Marco Rubio

Trump loves to humiliate people. Remember when he called Marco Rubio “Little Marco?” Then after he humiliates them, he brings them into his fold if they are willing to kiss his ring and swear fealty to him. In her HEATED blog this week, Emily Atkin writes that Rubio admits “climate change is a real problem,” but denies that greenhouse gases are the primary cause. In a debate last year, he was “unwilling to explicitly state that carbon emissions from human activity are causing climate change,” Politico Pro reported. Rubio also denies that the solution to climate change involves reducing fossil fuel use; in a 2019 op-ed, Rubio wrote that humans can simply adapt to sea level rise and worsening extreme weather. That is a chilling reminder of another Secretary of State in the first Trump dumpster fire administration, Rex Tillerson, who also suggested that humans just needed to adapt, a process he apparently thought might take a few years at most, rather than 10 or more generations if it is even possible at all. (This way of thinking, and Tillerson himself, were referenced in the new CleanTechnica video below.)

The Secretary of State is responsible for addressing climate change on a global scale and leading the implementation of the Paris climate accords, coordinating US funding for climate adaptation in developing countries, and integrating climate concerns into broader foreign policy strategies. Not much hope of any of that happening on Rubio’s watch.

Energy Secretary: Christopher Wright

Wright is the CEO of a fracking services company who does not accept the reality of climate change. “There is no climate crisis,” Wright said in a LinkedIn video last year. “And we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.” Atkin says this is one of Trump’s most concerning nominations. The Department of Energy plays a critical role in transitioning the US energy system to renewable sources, reducing the climate impact of the energy sector, and researching clean energy technology. Wright has no intention of doing any of those things.

Inside Climate News says the chief mandate of the department is to manage and protect the US nuclear arsenal, but if confirmed, Wright will oversee many parts of the country’s energy production. He is expected to redirect billions of dollars in climate and clean energy related spending from the Inflation Reduction Act, a move that could provoke a backlash because much of the IRA spending already distributed has gone to red states and both oil and methane companies benefit from tax credits for carbon capture, biofuels, and hydrogen.

One of Wright’s first orders of business will likely be to eliminate the Biden administration’s pause on new LNG export terminals. He will serve with Doug Burgum, the nominee for Interior Secretary, on the new National Energy Council, which Trump writes will “oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.” Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Interior Secretary: Doug Burgum

Burgum is the governor of North Dakota. He acknowledges climate change is real and human-caused, but downplays the role of fossil fuels. In an interview with the Sioux City Journal last year, “[he] said the climate is changing, [but] he did not say how much of an impact fossil fuel producers and other industries have on climate change.” Burgum also created a Net Zero by 2030 plan for North Dakota which “did not include a transition away from fossil fuels,” The Hill reported, and instead relied on carbon capture technologies for those industries. Scientists say carbon capture technology can be a small part of the solution to climate change, but that it is physically unable to capture all fossil fuel emissions. It’s also wildly expensive.

If confirmed, Burgum will oversee both onshore and offshore energy development on public lands with a primary focus on oil and gas drilling. “I think he will be highly effective in dismantling the protections that we have to protect our lands and our people,” Representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico told E&E News recently.

EPA Administrator: Lee Zeldin

Zeldin has not shared his views on climate change since 2014, when he told the Newsday editorial board he wasn’t “sold yet on the whole argument that we have a serious problem.” Someone should probably ask him to update his resume.

The purpose of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. It is in charge of enforcing climate regulations on cars and power plants, the two most polluting sectors of the economy, Atkin writes. Most observers expect he would pick up right where Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler left off after their stints as the heads of the agency. He has a mixed environmental record, ICN says. During his four terms in Congress, from 2015 to 2023, he pushed forward water resources development legislation in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and led a long effort to preserve a key bird and ocean life habitat in Long Island Sound. However, he did not vote on frequently voted against proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During a failed run for New York governor, he pledged to overturn the state’s ban on fracking. He earned a 14 percent pro-environmental voting record score from the League of Conservation Voters, which was higher than nearly any other current Republican but still low for someone expected to hold up the mandates of the EPA.

Other Abhorrent Nominations

There are many more picks that make it seem Trump has gone out of his way to find the worst possible candidates to fill his cabinet. Robert Kennedy, Jr for Health and Human Services has got to be a joke. The vehement opponent of vaccines who says he has a worm in his brain is under investigation for cutting the head of a whale off with a chain saw.

Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? What a way to dodge an investigation into him having sex with underage girls. He does acknowledge that “fossil fuels are not our future. They just aren’t.” In 2020, he said there is “a scientific consensus that the Earth is getting warmer. There is a moral consensus that we should do something about it.” But he routinely downplays the magnitude and speed at which a transition away from fossil fuels must happen to effectively tackle climate change. His own climate policy proposal — which he calls the “Green Real Deal” — acknowledges the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but sets no specific timeline or targets for doing so. Gaetz also says Democrats “use climate change as an excuse to regulate the American experience out of existence,” playing into the same conspiracies as his more extreme climate-denying colleagues.

Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii as National Intelligence Director is similarly hard to believe. Having an avowed admirer of Vladimir Putin as NSD is too much even for most Republicans in Congress to swallow. Right?

Then there is Pete Hegseth, who has been nominated for Secretary of Defense. His qualifications begin and end with being a Fox News host. That would be the same Fox News that defended itself in a defamation trial by insinuating that no one would take anything it says seriously because it is more of a comedy channel than a news organization. Hegseth is a climate denier who claims climate scientists are part of a conspiratorial left-wing plot to control Americans via the government. “It’s all about control for them,” he said in 2019. “That’s why climate change is the perfect enemy. They get to control your life to deal with it no matter what’s happening.” The Defense Secretary is responsible for ensuring Americans are protected against natural security threats — including climate change, which the DoD currently recognizes as a “threat multiplier.”

Reaction to his appointment has been swift. Politico reports that one representative of a defense contractor blurted, “Who the fuck is this guy?” He said the defense industry had hoped for “someone who actually has an extensive background in defense. That would be a good start.”

Bypassing Security & Background Checks

Bloomberg reports that Donald Trump is poised to skip over FBI vetting of his nominees, upending more than 60 years of precedent which may put him on a collision course with fellow Republicans who are unnerved by his picks. National security officials have expressed grave alarm at individuals such as Tulsi Gabbard getting instant access to the nation’s secrets. Republican senators have balked at Trump forgoing FBI background checks to install Matt Gaetz as Attorney General and cable television host Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. Both men, along with two other Trump nominees, have been the subject of sexual misconduct allegations and investigations.

Astute readers will note that many of these nominees spout the same drivel about left wing plots designed to control the populace, when it is actually Trump’s plan — in conjunction with Project 2025 — to lock up millions of Americans, destroy independent journalism, smash the Affordable Care Act, gut Social Security, and prosecute those who dare raise a voice against him. The extremist playbook is to accuse others of doing precisely what they themselves are doing.

The Bill Belichick Strategy

Bill Belichick, the former coach of the New England Patriots, created many plays over the years that defied conventional football wisdom. One was, near the end of a game when the other team was marching down the field, to tell his defense to let them score. Why? So there would be enough time left for the Patriots to mount their own drive down field and kick a field goal to win the game. Democrats may want to consider something similar. Give Trump and his minions a free hand and let them do their worst. Hopefully enough people will be horrified by his actions that they will return control of the House and Senate to the Blue Team in 2026. It’s a plan. Whether it’s a good plan is anybody’s guess.