Trump's new team is made up of loyalists, millionaires, lunatics, chauvinists, people from the right-wing Fox News television community, rapists and reality-show stars and Elon Musk. Will Americans find their way in the oligarchic variety of capitalism?
This text has been auto-translated from Polish.
Having digested the results of the 2024 presidential election, Americans are beginning to wonder what to expect from the new Republican government, which will begin work as early as January 20, 2025. As of that date, Republicans headed by President Donald Trump will control the White House, Congress and the courts, de facto negating the sense of a tri-partite government.
This will be the case for at least the next two years, until the 2026 congressional elections. The Supreme Court, of course, has been dominated by the right-wing judges introduced there by Trump at the end of his first term. Executive power will be held by Trump with careerist J.D. Vance on one side and Elon Musk on the other.
With Trump's election win, almost all of his problems with the law are disappearing: one case is to be postponed until the end of his term, 2029. In another, special counsel at the Justice Department Jack Smith had to let the investigation go. Soon Americans will have a new Justice Department, which will probably return the favor for the "vindication" of Trump - the talk is of 88 criminal charges in four separate cases brought against him.
So the new US president is a criminal, but to supporters he remains a wrongly accused and outlawed former sheriff with a heart of gold. The cinematic and televised glorification of criminals has finally done America some good; after all, half of American men say their favorite movie is The Godfather.
The outgoing Joe Biden intends to hand over power peacefully. His image was not helped by the presidential pardon he granted to his convicted felon son (he had previously announced he would not do so). Losing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris promised to "fight on," then left to rest in Hawaii. However, she will soon return to Congress, where she will be present at the inauguration of Trump's government as a senator.
Trump's new team consists of loyalists, millionaires, lunatics, chauvinists, people from the right-wing Fox News television community, rapists and reality-show stars. The State Department will be led by Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, known as Trump's pushover, and New York Republican MP Elise Stefanik, known for her anti-Palestinian statements, is to be appointed as US ambassador to the UN.
The most exciting element of the new administration is the collaboration between billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in a new government-independent initiative called DOGE (named after Musk's favorite bitcoin, dogecoin). The initiative, through a path of budget cuts, is expected to save the state money and ensure the "efficiency" of the government's work. DOGE was ironically supported by Bernie Sanders, suggesting cuts to the Department of Defense.
Some of Musk's visions are also attractive to Democrats, whom he impresses as a businessman. Perhaps this merging of the private sector with government will teach America something new about oligarchic capitalism.
Robert Kennedy Jr. - a former Democrat and America's chief anti-vaccine advocate, and Trump's challenger for the Republican nomination-is expected to run the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Trump's promise to him. RFK Jr. is undoubtedly a man of transition, he suffers from a voice disorder, had a parasite in his brain and finally - he is a representative of a famous political dynasty. He believes that the CIA assassinated his father Robert and uncle - John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This is a controversial nomination not only for Democrats; some on the traditional right (headed by former Republican Congressional leader Mitch McConnell) also can't believe that this is the man Trump is betting on.
There will also be a "TV doctor". Dr. Oz, who became famous for his visits to Ophra Winfrey's show and later advised on the TV show Dr. Oz advises, will take charge of medical services for seniors.
However, Trump's most controversial choice turned out to be Florida Assemblyman Matt Gaetz, whom the incoming president wanted to fill the position of attorney general. Even before his nomination, Gaetz had struggled with accusations of sex with minors. In the end, the embattled MP resigned from his position in Congress. The attorney general will be succeeded by Pam Bondi, who allegedly helped Trump avoid an investigation into accused Trump University fraud.
The Department of Defense and the Pentagon are expected to come under the administration of former Fox News television commentator and alcoholic Pete Hegseth, who incidentally is struggling with rape allegations. Pale and well-known in Trump's previous term as a sworn enemy of immigrants, Stephen Miller will be one of the new president's advisors, as will Florida MP Mike Waltz, who is militant against China. Mike Huckabee, currently governor of Arkansas, will be ambassador to Israel, despite his apparent ties to Benjamin Netanyahu's current government.
Let's also look at the women, several of whom are expected to enter the Trump administration. First - Susan Wiles, Trump's future chief of staff and perhaps the voice of reason. Apparently Trump sometimes listens to her. Hired as a secretary in Ronald Reagan's government, Wiles will be the first woman in this key position, which reassures moderate Republicans. We will also see the youngest presidential press secretary in US history, 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt.
Another woman nominated by Trump is former Florida Assemblywoman and, until recently, Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard, who started by endorsing socialist Bernie Sanders in 2016 and ended up on the far right. Meanwhile, she managed to infuse both sides of the political discourse with her 2017 meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Gabbard is set to become head of US intelligence.
To wrap up the number of key appointments to the new administration: one of the energy industry's CEOs, Chris Wright, will head the Department of Energy, and financial advisor Billy Long, already known to be working without the required certification, is to run the IRS. Immigration will be handled by Tom Homan, creator of the hated family separation program at the border. Related to Project 2025, John Radcliffe has been nominated to head the CIA.
So what to expect? For now, what Trump announced two weeks ago in an NBC TV interview. On the first day, we have to do something about the situation at the border, he declared, although he did not specify exactly what he intends to do. After that, the government must address the expiring tax cuts for the rich that Trump introduced in his first term. "We'll start with the criminals, and then we'll see," he said. - said the president-elect.
In principle, Republicans can push whatever they want through Congress. Right now, the most important issue for the outgoing Congress is to avoid a government shutdown (paralyzing the administration, including payments to federal employees). The possibility of a deal with the Democrats has been destroyed by Trump and Musk, encouraging them to bury the agreed version of next year's budget.
Finally, two little bombshells. Mainstream TV station ABC agreed to pay Trump $15 million for defamation (one journalist called him a "rapist"). This is a sad day for the US media and perhaps the beginning of their capitulation to the president.
Bomb #2: Trump proposes to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland.
