NPR’s “On Point” ran a great episode with the Atlantic’s Tom Nichols (Professor emeritus of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, where he taught for 25 years). Nichols and host Meghna Chakrabarti discussed the Trump Administration’s war on expertise in the federal government. Nichols and Chakrabarti not only provided specifics about the stunning incompetence of Trump’s cabinet but also explained the ways that Trump’s hiring philosophy (if we can dignify it with that label) is right out of the authoritarian (or autocratic) playbook.
Authoritarians don’t want to deal with any restraints on their whims and instincts, and experts are champions at throwing cold water on stupid ideas and notions. Thus if, say, you want to start a war with Iran and don’t want to hear about the obvious likelihood that Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz or start launching missiles at US allies in the region, then you wouldn’t want icky experts in your Administration because you can count on experts to tell you stuff you don’t want to hear. Instead, you’d want yes-men, tough-guy imbeciles like Pete Hegseth and the other spineless non-entities surrounding Trump. The On Point show is worth listening to in its entirety, and can be heard wherever you get your podcasts.
Along with the authoritarian angle, Nichols also hypothesized that Trump has appointed incompetents to important positions because he hates us (not Nichols’ words) and wants to get even with the American people for not reelecting him in 2020. That is plausible. Trump is a disrupter, and disrupters like to break things and, when they are sociopaths like Trump, they particularly want to hurt people.
There’s an additional explanation for the Trump’s rather bizarre hiring practices–an explanation that emerges from Trump’s attack on Joe Kent, the counter-terrorism chief who resigned the other day in protest over of the Iran War. Trump insulted Kent for remarrying a mere four years (!) after Kent’s wife was killed in Syria. That insult has gotten a lot of attention given Trump’s shady dealings with his own wives–not to mention the Epstein files–but what is perhaps more deserving of attention is what Trump said about why he hired Kent in the first place.
According to an article published by People, Trump indicated that he gave Kent the job of director of the National Counterterrorism Center–the chief counterterrorism official of the United States–out of pity: “His wife was killed — he remarried fairly quickly. His wife was killed, and I felt badly for him,” Trump, 79, said. “He ran for Congress. He lost. He ran for Congress again, and he lost. I said, ‘You know, he’s a guy, nice guy.’ Seemed like a very nice guy. I met him. He was pretty heartbroken, pretty– but I said, ‘You know, it’s a shame he ran for Congress twice, call him up, give him a a job in the White House.’ ”
So Trump hired Kent (who is an alleged White Supremacist and anti-semite) to protect Americans against terrorism because he “[s]eemed like a very nice guy” and Trump felt sorry for him. Feeling sorry for someone might be a reason to give a person a busboy job at Mar-a-Lago, but it’s hardly a reason to give a person a government job–much less a government job overseeing the anti-terrorism efforts of the U.S. government.
But it’s pretty obvious that Trump doesn’t understand the difference between his public responsibilities and his family business. In fact, he treats the government like it’s part of his family business. This is no doubt why he unashamedly has used his political power to enrich himself and his family. (Thank you, Supreme Court, for giving him the impression that that’s perfectly okay.)
So there are lots of explanation for why Trump has stocked our government with malignant morons. The phenomenon is “over-determined,” as social scientists might say. But one explanation is that Trump views the government as his personal fiefdom, and if he wants to hire yes-men, incompetents, cranks, and idiots. That his prerogative as the business “owner.” He can hire whoever he wants at his other businesses, so why not for his Administration?