A quick review of Trump's cabinet and how they may affect us
Henry Beall
By the time you read this, nearly all of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks will have been confirmed. There are 22 cabinet heads in total, and 18 have been confirmed. We will run through the highlights and analyze the critical points where they can influence you.
First is Scott Bessent (68-32). Scott Bessent is our new Treasury Secretary, and he often projects an image of maturity. Because of this image, he was pretty popular, even with Democrats.
He comes from Wall Street, founded a hedge fund, and is the country’s first gay Treasury Secretary. Scott Bessent will affect you primarily through your government programs.
He is entirely in favor of destroying the national debt, which means inducing short-term pain and cutting costly government programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Pam Bondi is our country’s attorney general (54-46). She was Florida’s AG for eight years- from 2011-2019, and she was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment. Pam Bondi will likely be kinder to the private sector, allowing them more leeway.
Doug Burgum is the interior secretary (79-21). He was the former Governor of North Dakota, and he is much more moderate. Doug Burgum will impact you through energy.
Burgum campaigned for President in a short-lived campaign, and he focused on energy, something he will have greater influence on as head of the interior. He will have a lot of power when it comes to determining what areas can be used for oil, coal, natural gas, wind, solar, etc. …, and what areas cannot.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer will probably not be our next labor secretary. Rand Paul, who carries himself as a Libertarian, refuses to vote for her, as she supported a very pro-union bill. She needs his vote to get out of the committee since no Democrats will defect, probably.
If she does make it out, which again, is unlikely, she will likely bring a more pro-union slant to the Trump Administration, which might clash with the pro-business tilt, but could also appeal to the populist side.
Tulsi Gabbard (52-48) is the Director of National Intelligence; she is America’s top spy. Gabbard served in the National Guard for two decades and on the Homeland Security committee for two years in the House.
She represents a move towards Russia. Gabbard’s impact on Americans directly is minimal, as she mostly operates in the foreign-policy sphere, but she has been accused of being a Russian mouthpiece, which could be painful if conflict comes to a head. She scraped by in the Senate by two votes.
Pete Hegseth (51-50, tie broken by VP) served in the National Guard for 19 years, and he worked at Fox News for a decade. He is now our Defense Secretary. Hegseth was accused of sexual assault by a woman in 2017, has also faced accusations that he has a drinking problem, and controversially has claimed in the past that women should not serve in combat.
I think Hegseth’s most direct impact on the American people may be through a shrinking of the defense budget. I know that sounds insane, for the defense budget to shrink in America, especially based on the Senate’s most recent suggested budget, but Hegseth has made DEI, “modernization,” and bringing a “warrior’s mentality” his priority.
Combined with whatever Elon is doing, as well as the cabinet’s position towards government spending, I think a lot of employees could be leaving, and/or some government contracts could shrink.
Lighting Round:
RFK JR. (52-48) (Health and Human Services) will be all about new initiatives. Honestly, I do not even know what he will do. He has some varied opinions on things like vaccines that make predictions difficult.
Howard Lutnick (51-49) (Commerce) is another Wall Street guy, like Bessent. Lutnick is a bit hardcore, definitely a Trump Truther, and he will aggressively go after China, support crypto, and try to get Trump to pump tariffs (don’t make me angry Howie) as much as possible. Kristi Noem (59-41) (Homeland Security) was thrown around as a VP pick, but all that stuff came out about her killing a dog, and her smile is disconcerting, so she did not get it. She will be hyper-aggressive about the border, a common talking point from her, which I always thought was funny because she was the governor of South Dakota.
John Ratcliffe (74-26) (CIA) is another adult. He is pretty popular because he has run other spy agencies and has a reputation of relative responsibility.
Marco Rubio (99-1) (Secretary of State) was virtually unanimous because he is another adult (relatively). However, he seems a bit toothless, as he has repeatedly had to change views and change policy to meet Trump where he is.
These cabinet leaders are heavily weighted towards the “man-from-the-outside” factor, rather than experience, especially in the lower-tier positions that did not qualify for my prestigious column. Making predictions about people who promise to be agents of change, like Elon who runs a department that sort of exists and sort of doesn’t, is really difficult, but I guess we’ll all find out what these people want to do soon.
Henry Beall is a columnist for The Paper. He is a senior at Freedom High School.
