Trump Is Doing More Than Appointing A Cabinet, He's Framing The Public Debate

It was a cold, drizzly morning at LaGuardia Airport. My plane had just been pushed back in preparation for our short ride to Washington, D.C. Just then, beside us on the Taxi Way, appeared a white, shiny plane emblazoned in big red letters with the name Trump. It’s my first memory of a man who has become central to the history of our country.

Just days before Donald J. Trump managed to carve out one of the few profitable parts of a failing Eastern Airlines: the New York to Washington Shuttle. It was quite a coup for the young businessman, who proved he was much more than a real estate developer. There was a New York Financier who could ink one of the most significant transactions of the day, and The Art of the Deal was born.

To many, President-Elect Donald J. Trump personifies the brash New Yorker. He is often outrageous, and controversy surrounds him like a cloud. And yet, Trump is a collection of seeming contradictions. While it’s true that Trump is brash, he is certainly not loud. His soft-spoken style belies a thoughtful person behind all the bravado.

Having spent much of my career on Wall Street, I’ve known my share of brash New Yorkers, yet I’ve rarely met anyone with Trump’s talent. While the Eastern Airlines deal was a business coup, the bold Trump branding stood out. It wasn’t ego that made Trump paint those planes so distinctively; it was the recognition that his new airline needed to be distinctive from all the rest if he wanted to gain market share.

Trump’s ability to point us in one direction, only to introduce us to an entirely new “Trump-centric” reality. In building the Trump Shuttle, he created a new brand to compete with the existing airlines. I remember the buzz in the office when people I worked with took their first flight on Trump’s Airline. As Trump’s new airline delivered, what appeared to be Trump’s pure ego became an all-new Shuttle experience. The Trump Shuttle was more comfortable and dramatically cleaner than the competition.

Trump is using the same playbook that he used 35 years ago in building the Trump Shuttle: He points people in seemingly one direction, only to have them reach a new destination when all is said and done. Trump is not afraid to appear to be one thing while he’s actually playing from a very different script.

Today, Washington denizens and political commentators are up in arms about Trump’s Cabinet nominations. They assume that Trump is using a conventional strategy of appointing conventional bureaucrats to head the Federal Government’s vast Administrative State.

But, if you’ve followed Trump, you recognize that’s not what’s occurring.

Trump is setting the stage to reveal just what the Administrative State and our political leaders really are. Remember, above all, Trump is a showman. His “reality television” program was one of the most popular of its time because Trump understands how to put on a show.

The “show” he is putting on now will be the US Senate Confirmation Hearings and the debate leading up to them. The Trump Cabinet appointments take on an entirely different perspective when viewed in this light.

If Trump is to be taken at his word, he believes that the US Military is troubled and that recently imposed “woke” policies have jeopardized our nation’s defense. So, Trump appointed Pete Hegseth, the Fox News commentator and the country’s most vociferous wake critic, Secretary of Defense. Trump is now in the driver’s seat. Should Hegseth be confirmed, he will undoubtedly implement the anti-woke policies that Trump seeks.

On the other hand, should Hegseth be rejected by the Senate, it will only be after Senators have revealed themselves to be just the sort of “pro-woke” politicians that Trump has railed against. Moreover, Hegseth is an extremely capable public speaker who will provide a juicy “sound bite” that will play well on the nightly news. Trump will win again by exposing the policies that he opposes.

We’ve already seen Trump’s strategy at work in the nomination of Tom Homan as the new “border czar.” Homan has been the past head of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Videos of Mr. Homan’s past testimony before Congress are going viral on the internet, as he promoted Trump’s vision of border control. Before the Confirmation Hearings began, Homan was already playing his role. Trump wins.

We can expect the same sort of high drama and thus highly visible reactions to the appointments of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services and Max Gaetz for Attorney General. RFK Jr. will battle against the politically entrenched Pharmaceutical and Ag Industries, while Gaetz, himself the victim of what Trump likely sees as “law-fare,” will be tasked with making the case against an overreaching administrative state.

Perhaps the most vivid example of Trump’s advocacy appointments is Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In his 2022 Campaign for Governor of New York, Zeldin proposed allowing fracking in upstate, which would turn the EPA upside down.

For 50 years, the EPA has prioritized protecting the environment. Trump proposes a new Secretary who would prioritize energy production, albeit within existing environmental constraints, as the agency’s top priority. This is in line with Trump’s promotion of economic growth. We can expect major fireworks surrounding this nomination.

In each of Trump’s nominations, we see the dual role of the conventional Cabinet appointment and the advocate for critical Trump Policies. Gone are the all-star bureaucrats who will go their own way. Instead, Trump introduced a new group of Cabinet Secretaries assigned to promote a specific Trump plan.

They will undoubtedly be carefully coached and prepared for their Confirmation Hearing. Whether their role will continue beyond using the Senate Forum to make Trump’s case remains to be seen. The Senate may reject some of Trump’s nominees, and their roles will end in just weeks. However, most will, no doubt, be confirmed.

It doesn’t matter what each nominee’s fate will be. Trump will have carefully prepared each nominee to perform their designated role precisely, one that will promote the new President’s policy positions. Whether confirmed or not, Trump will have changed the nation’s debate, a true win to begin his second term.

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