As Trump Torches America, Putin is Playing his Fiddle

When Trump was first elected, I thought the most terrifying aspect of his leadership were his nominations. Judging by his nominations, I was confident that Trump was not a foolish president, rather, Trump was actively trying to destroy the American government. These nominations were not stupid decisions, they were actually well plotted strategies to weaken the departments of government that the nominations were assigned to head.

That first paragraph assumes a much more sinister reception when we acknowledge the Trump and Putin collusion allegations. Remember, an investigation is being conducted right now, determining if Russia helped Trump steal the election. If such a disgusting allegation becomes fact, then any decision Trump has made to harm the government becomes an act of war. No different than a missile sent by a foreign government.

Each of Trump’s nominations had spent their lives attacking the very agency they were chosen to lead.

Agriculture Secretary — Sonny Perdue heads a global agribusiness empire. His loyalty is to big business. His first move as Agriculture Secretary was to remove health standards from public school meals. This is the person in charge of our nation’s agriculture!

Environmental Protection Agency — Scott Pruitt, climate denier who has worked closely with the fossil fuel industry his entire career. He has worked inside the coal industry. He wound up resigning amid an ethics scandal.

Department of Education — Besty Devos has devoted her life to replacing our public school system with private charter schools.

Agriculture Research in Department of Agriculture — Sam Clovis, never had a single scientific graduate class. Instead, he has a right-wing talk show, based on denying climate change.

Department of Health — Tom Price’s vision for health reform includes replacing federal government’s role with that of a free-market framework. He also resigned amid an ethics scandal.

Secretary of Energy — Rick Perry flunked chemistry. He didn’t even know what the agency does. Now he is the head of it.

Department of Housing and Urban Development — Ben Carson has written op-eds about how our fair housing act is “failed socialism” and a “mandated social-engineering scheme”. Now, millions of people depend on him to have a roof over their heads!

Rex Tillerson was Trump’s Secretary of State. Analysts say that the damage he caused will affect America for years. Remember a year ago, a big mystery was where the heck-fire was the Secretary of State? For days, the guy would just vanish. He also had no government experience. BUT he was the CEO of Exxon.

Tillerson was taking secret vacations to Venezuela, Russia and the Middle East. Ironically, the same places in the world with the most oil reserves.

Undoubtedly, Tillerson’s greatest achievement with Exxon was partnering with Russian oil company Rosneft. Not only did the deal give Tillerson access to Russia’s untapped oil reserves, but it also cemented a beautiful friendship between Tillerson and Putin. CNN

“I think he really will go down as one of the worst secretaries of State we’ve had,” Eliot Cohen, counselor to the State Department under President George W. Bush, told Axios’s Jonathan Swan. “He will go down as the worst Secretary of State in history,” tweeted Ilan Goldenberg, an Obama-era State Department official.

Many expected Tillerson to be one of the “adults in the room,” helping Secretary of Defense James Mattis rein in some of Trump’s wildest ideas. His attempts to play that role backfired — his ham-handed attempts to manage Trump alienated the president, who has reportedly complained about his “totally establishment” views on foreign policy. — VOX

Why else would you chose people to head departments who had spent their lives trying to destroy those very departments? You can’t have much admiration for a country when you appoint such damaging leaders.

Perhaps Trump isn’t actively trying to destroy the country. Maybe, all he cares is about is money. Even if it is a bad nomination, as long as they give Trump enough money, Trump will torch any department.

Since Trump has become president, Boeing has spent nearly $28 million lobbying congress. As a result, they have been granted several huge contracts, including $400 million to build B-1 and B-52 bombers. Now, Patrick Shanahan, former Boeing executive, is the acting Secretary of Defense.

Lobbyists rule our nation now. With Trump, everything is for sale, even leadership of our country. The Department of Defense is run by a former Boeing executive. Health and Human Services is run by a former pharmaceutical lobbyist. The Interior Department will be run by a former oil industry lobbyist. GritPost

Literally, all of Trump’s nominations are head-scratchers.

Nick Brusky, for example, passed out Trump leaflets during the election. He was also a county commissioner and truck driver. That is all that is on his resume. As of this article, he hadn’t graduated college yet. Trump chose this middle school punk to work at the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. His plum job was a G-12, the highest government job ranking, at $79,000 a year!

Another similar nomination was Christoper O’Hagan. He graduated the University of Scranton in 2016. O’Hagan became our nation’s confidential assistant at the Agricultural Marketing Service. Another plum position. But if you would look at his resume, you’d be disheartened to see that besides working for the Trump campaign, there is nothing, except a position as a cabana assistant at the Westchester Country Club, in Rye, New York.

Tim Page is another 2016 college graduate who got nominated by Trump to work at the Natural Resources Conservation Services. Check out his resume, and you’ll see nothing on it besides landscaping work.

Brusky, O’Hagan and Page are three of 10 confidential assistants whose résumés were among those obtained by American Oversight, along with the résumés of some career staff who are acting in leadership roles. All but one of the 10 touted their work to get the president elected, and most do not have agricultural experience. All of the appointees with this title are ranked as GS-11, GS-12 or GS-13, positions with annual salaries ranging from $60,210 to $85,816 at Step 1 of each grade. Two of the 10 didn’t list college degrees on their résumés, despite guidelines that call for anyone at GS-7 or higher to have completed a four-year degree. — Politico

Whether Trump’s nominations are intentionally made to harm the government or they are made to fatten his wallet, Putin definitely approves. Putin knew that Trump at the helm would weaken the US government drastically.