Washington, Oct 27 (EFE).- Ignorant, incoherent or even fascist. This is how former President of the United States Donald Trump is portrayed by many collaborators who were under his orders and who broke with him, which opens up a big question: Who would the Republican surround himself with if he returned to the White House?
If he wins against Democrat Kamala Harris on November 5, everything indicates that Trump would form a second, more loyal and radical cabinet after a turbulent first term (2017-2021) that was marked by waves of resignations and dismissals, many of them announced by Twitter.
The latest to attack the Republican in the final stretch of the campaign has been his former chief of staff John Kelly, who has described Trump as a “fascist” and accuses him of being an admirer of Adolf Hitler.
Trump’s White House was a “pinball machine”
About thirty former collaborators have been critical of the former president, especially after a mob of Trumpist fanatics stormed the Capitol in 2021, and only half of his former cabinet supports him in these elections.
The list of detractors is long, starting with his former vice president, Mike Pence, who broke with Trump after he ordered him to stop the transition of powers with Democrat Joe Biden. Pence has said he will not vote for Trump.
Most criticism revolves around two issues: their lack of knowledge about how the government works and their authoritarian tendencies, summarizes Carl Cavalli, an expert on political parties at the University of North Georgia, to EFE.
“Many officials became disillusioned because they were advisors or politicians with a more traditional profile and they realized that Trump did not know how the government works and was not interested either,” he details.
John Bolton, his third National Security advisor, tells EFE that working with the former president was like “living inside a pinball machine” because “he did not follow a coherent political line.”
«We couldn’t keep him focused. “He has a very short attention span in most things,” he details.
A loyal and radical team
Trump, a New York real estate magnate who became very popular for a television show in which he fired people, often argues that he fired his collaborators because they did a bad job and that now he knows who he can trust if he governs again. .
For now he has given almost no details about who would accompany him, but it seems clear that he would reward blind loyalty, especially after feeling supported by a Supreme Court ruling that granted presidents broad judicial immunity.
«The first term was surrounded by people who tried to curb their impulses. A second term will be populated by loyalists who will attend to his whims,” says Cavalli.
One of the main figures would be his vice president, JD Vance, a senator who opposed Trump in the past but later bowed to his will, to the point that, unlike Pence, he supports the false narrative of electoral fraud in 2020. .
The Republican plans to incorporate into his transition team Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who resigned from his presidential campaign to support Trump, and has promised a position to Elon Musk, a magnate who defends him tooth and nail in what was previously Twitter.
Several names are being considered for Secretary of State, including that of Senator Marco Rubio, a hardline defender of Cuba and Venezuela, who was a finalist as a possible vice president.
Stephen Miller, a loyal Trump adviser who is behind his anti-immigration policies, could have an important position, as could Richard Grenell, his controversial former ambassador to Germany.
As for the family clan, Trump placed his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the White House, but he also distanced himself from them. In his place, the first-born, Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump have gained influence.
Some of the fiercest criticism against Trump comes from those in charge of the country’s security during his term, such as former Secretary of Defense James Mattis or former head of the Armed Forces Mark Milley, who consider him a threat to the Constitution.
In an unprecedented gesture, Trump has charged in this campaign against the country’s military leadership because he sees it as too progressive: “I will fire her.” EFE
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