To understand why he has picked Pete Hegseth as the secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence, Matt Gaetz as the attorney general and Robert F Kennedy Jr as the secretary of health and human services, go back to Trump's perceived experiences with these institutions. Add to it the American electorate's views on these institutions -- partly due to Trump's rhetoric but partly due to real lived experiences -- and then juxtapose it with an election mandate that has given his insurgent political movement the authority to cause systemic rupture.
It is these three features that explain why Trump has made a range of extraordinarily controversial and, from the point of view of many Americans, even dangerous choices. Examine this in the context of the broad areas of defense, intelligence and legal system, and public health.
The world of defense It is ironic that a leader who projects himself as a fierce American nationalist and who comes from the far-right tradition of American politics is so deeply contemptuous of the civilian bureaucracy and military leadership at Pentagon.
This contempt stems from Trump's perception that this constituency was not personally loyal to him during his first term. It also stems from Trump's belief that the military establishment is responsible for pushing America into unnecessary wars and was nudging him in the same direction, despite his personal resistance and his movement's fierce opposition to these external entanglements.
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