Examining how President-elect Trump’s Cabinet choices match up with his agenda : NPR

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The president-elect has been naming high officials at high speed. The latest is Brendan Carr for head of the Federal Communications Commission. He wants to crack down on tech companies. And then there is the national security team announced last week. On Friday, we heard a critical view of some of them from John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, now a critic, who objected to two selections in particular – Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Matt Gaetz to head the Justice Department.

JOHN BOLTON: Republicans who are rushing to throw themselves over these grenades for Donald Trump really need to hold back until they hear more about both of these nominees because the senators are risking their personal integrity and really their place in history by kind of blindly saying that they’ll support them.

INSKEEP: Now let’s hear from a group that’s been advising the president-elect. Marc Lotter speaks for the America First Policy Institute, founded in 2021 to help advance Trump’s agenda. Lotter was in the Trump White House – spoke for Vice President Pence at that time. Mr. Lotter, welcome.

MARC LOTTER: Good morning. Thanks for having me, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK, so you know the story of Matt Gaetz, Florida lawmaker known for high-profile acts in the media, disruptive in the House, also investigated by the House Ethics Committee, which has an unpublished report on him. Many accusations he has denied. What makes him the right match for attorney general?

LOTTER: Well, obviously, he’s young. He’s going to come in there. He’s a lawyer. He’s also a former member of the House Judiciary Committee, so he understands how the judicial process works. And he’s someone that the president trusts is going to go in there and make sure that the Justice Department is getting back to doing its job, rather than pursuing partisan activities and partisan prosecutions, and really make sure that we end this weaponization of the Justice Department and the federal government.

INSKEEP: John Bolton questioned Gaetz’s character based on the accusations of having sex with a minor, just the way that he behaved in the House – on and on. Are you in a position to say that you believe that his character is of the highest?

LOTTER: Well, that’s something that the Senate’s going to have to take a look at. Obviously, that’s part of their due diligence. It’s something where, you know, I’m sure that will get a lot of scrutiny. It’s been widely noted that the Senate, usually, regardless of the partisanship of the White House and the Senate, usually rejects at least one nominee, just kind of to flex their muscles and remind the president that they’re constitutionally required to be in this process. You know, we’ll see if the former congressman can get through that scrutiny. But I know right now he has the full trust and support of the president-elect.

INSKEEP: The House Ethics Committee report, which has not been released, says something about him. Are you comfortable with someone in a position of great sensitivity on national security where there’s some kind of secret information about him?

LOTTER: Well, you know, they go through these – all of these go through these processes. They all have, obviously, these background checks and these reports. It’ll be very interesting to see if the report does find its way over to the Senate. You know, Washington, D.C. leaks often like the Titanic, so, you know, it’ll be interesting to see if – regardless of what the Republican leadership says, if that doesn’t somehow find its way into, you know, somebody’s hands prior to this confirmation hearing. That’s generally what happens in Washington, D.C.

INSKEEP: Yeah. We’ll see if the iceberg gets in there. I want to ask about Gaetz’s purpose and how it fits with the president-elect’s agenda, though. I get that he’s there to be a disruptor. I get that the former president feels that he was prosecuted unjustly. He was prosecuted for taking classified documents for trying to overturn his election defeat. Doesn’t want that to happen again, so I get that. But we’re talking here about an agency with more than 100,000 employees that operates all around the world, that prosecutes all sorts of crimes, that plays a huge role in national security. Is there anything affirmative that the president-elect would like that agency to do, and does Gaetz have the managerial competence to do it?

LOTTER: Well, I think it’s someone who has, you know, obviously has a background in the law, has a background on the House Judiciary Committee. He’s obviously well-suited to lead this agency, make sure, I think, that it’s focused on those critical functions that you mentioned, whether it is prosecuting, you know, true criminals, playing a role in the national security space. Those are vital aspects of it. When we see so many resources being deferred or – and moved over toward more partisan activities, I think that’s something that we’ve got to take a look at. You know, we know that in the last couple of elections, the Justice Department has played a role in that. And whether that should be the case moving forward, that’s, I think, something that Matt Gaetz can look at and bring a fresh perspective toward.

INSKEEP: But, I mean, do you think that he even has the competence to know where to look? And I just ask it as a question. I mean, he hasn’t managed anything.

LOTTER: Well, I think sometimes, you know, I think what you see with the president and – elect and what his cabinet choices are showing across the board is he’s looking at people that are going to come in with a fresh set of eyes, not just go in there and accept what we’ve been doing for the last 20, 30, 40 years is necessarily what we should be doing moving forward.

INSKEEP: Understood. Let me ask – I could ask about so many cabinet choices, but your former boss, Mike Pence, has criticized another cabinet choice, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., not over his views about vaccines or fluoride or whatever, but for favoring abortion rights. Quote, “the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.” How should conservatives view that?

LOTTER: Well, I think ultimately, what we have to remember is that regardless of what these cabinet secretaries’ personal views are, they are there at the direction of the president of the United States. The president-elect, in this case, has made it very clear that he believes that these issues should be decided at the state level, and that’s what he has maintained and was very steadfast in. So I would anticipate that any of his cabinet secretaries, while they might voice their personal opinions to the president or president-elect, ultimately their job is to execute on his policy mission and the one that the majority of the people elected him to pursue.

INSKEEP: I have another question about this because you worked closely with Vice President Pence. As you know very well, Pence declined to endorse Trump after the events of January. 6. Pence named a variety of concerns, not just January 6 and Trump’s view of the Constitution, but a lot of other issues as well. How do you think about Pence’s concerns and reservations about Trump now that Trump is heading back into office?

LOTTER: Well, I see that the former vice president congratulated the president-elect on his victory shortly after that was declared. And, you know, I think, 99% of what the president-elect is championing and is running on are things that the former vice president probably supports. And he was there as one of those allies during the first Trump term. Obviously, where they have their disagreements, they will continue to probably have those.

INSKEEP: Do you believe that the former president, the president-elect, is going to follow the Constitution as it is broadly understood – granting a difference of opinion here and there, but as it is broadly understood?

LOTTER: Absolutely. And I think he did that during his first term, and I think he will do that during his second term. Ultimately, what they want to do is our – enact those America First policies to get our country moving in the right direction again. And with the support of the majority of the American people, I think the president-elect will do it.

INSKEEP: Marc Lotter worked in the first Trump White House and is now a spokesperson for the America First Policy Institute. Marc, thanks for your time.

LOTTER: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF KODOMO’S “CONCEPT 11”)

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