Nov.27

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Dem 47

   

GOP 53

Today in Appointments News

Donald Trump announced a few more significant appointments (though, again, the biggies have all been announced, at least until one or more of them has to withdraw). Here are the new fish:

• U.S. Trade Representative: Although all the Cabinet positions have been taken, this is one of the Cabinet-level jobs that had no nominee. Trump's pick is Jamieson Greer, a 44-year-old corporate lawyer who served as right-hand man to the U.S. Trade Representative from the previous Trump administration, Robert Lighthizer. Greer is pretty fanatical about tariffs and protectionism, and about reducing the United States' trade deficit, and will be responsible for implementing whatever steps Trump takes (or tries to take) on that front. Of course, he may well be out of a job by 2028, by virtue of no countries being willing to trade with the U.S. anymore.
  
  
• Director of the White House National Economic Council: An "insider" job that everyone in Washington knows about, and few people outside Washington know about. The occupant of this particular post coordinates economic policy across agencies and is not subject to Senate confirmation. Trump has chosen Kevin Hassett, a Penn-trained economist who served in the previous Trump administration as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (a similar kind of job), and who has otherwise spent most of his career employed by right-wing think tanks. Hassett is best known for co-authoring the 1999 book Dow 36,000, which predicted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was about to spike, and a DJIA of 36,000 was right around the corner. He was off by a mere... 22 years (the Dow finally reached 36,000 in 2021). Hassett's another tariff guy, though his real passion is tax cuts for rich people.
  
  
• Director of the Domestic Policy Council: Another "insider" job that is not subject to Senate confirmation. The holder of this post coordinates domestic policy across agencies. For this one, Trump selected Vince Haley. Haley had been working for Trump as a speechwriter, and before that was an aide to Newt Gingrich for 12 years. That pretty much tells you where he's at, politically.
  
  
• Director of the National Institutes of Health: For this post, Trump has tapped Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. He is Stanford-trained, and is now on the faculty at that university, and is a well-respected medical researcher. That said, the reason he is well known, and the reason that Trump picked him, is that while the Doctor is generally pro-vaxx, he was the main author of the Great Barrington Declaration, published at the height of the COVID pandemic. It argued that mask mandates and lockdowns should be dropped, and that the best way forward was for everyone to get sick and thus for herd immunity to develop. This, by the way, was months before any vaccine was available, even for clinical trials. In short, Bhattacharya might be described as 50% Anthony Fauci, 50% Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Well, OK, 25% Fauci, 75% Kennedy.
  
  
• Secretary of the Navy: Trump's nominee here is John Phelan, who has never served in the military, and thus has never served in the Navy, although we do understand he owns a copy of The Village People's greatest hits. We are having trouble figuring out what qualifies him for this position; all we seem to be able to learn about him is that he's a private equity tycoon who donated millions to Trump's PACs. Oh well, one day we'll figure out why he got the nod. In any event, this job is Senate-confirmed, and it's possible the senators might choke on this one, given Phelan's background. That said, there have been past secretaries without naval/military experience, and there were also a couple of non-veteran assistant secretaries named Roosevelt who worked out pretty well. So, maybe the Senate won't mind.

And that's the kind of day it's been. (Z)