“President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for many of the top cabinet positions in his upcoming administration are unorthodox, to say the least. In some cases, it would be hard to think of people less qualified for their proposed jobs.

Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Kash Patel as F.B.I. director and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as overseer of the nation’s health care policies — each lacks the relevant experience and has an array of troubling biases that should be disqualifying.

Mr. Trump’s choices for ambassadors and senior advisers — sycophants, cronies and even his children’s in-laws and romantic partners — seem to break with a century of precedent in American politics.

What we are seeing in the United States today, though, is not so new. It echoes what is happening all over the world: an assault on the modern state as we know it. In countries including Hungary, Israel and Britain, the civil service, judiciary and law enforcement have been attacked by the very leaders elected to manage them.”

Continue reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/opinion/trump-assault-government-americans.html