Draining the swamp - of brainpower: Trump's corrupt administration is fueled by anti-intellectualism
SATURDAY, JUL 22, 2017 06:00 AM EDT
Trump got elected by attacking "elites." But he didn't mean rich people — only those with education and expertise
CONOR LYNCH
On the campaign trail last year Donald Trump forcefully promoted himself as the anti-corruption candidate and famously promised that he would “drain the swamp” in Washington if elected president. “For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our campaign represents an existential threat,” boasted the candidate at one point during a speech in which he assailed the “corrupt political establishment” and the “corrupt Clinton machine.”
This populist rhetoric was critical to Trump’s success, and the Republican candidate was elected in large part because he was perceived by many as an outsider who would bring change to Washington, in direct contrast to Hillary Clinton, who was widely seen as the ultimate insider who epitomized that “corrupt political establishment.”
Though many saw right through Trump’s rhetoric, it became clear just how farcical his promise to “drain the swamp” was when he began assembling his cabinet shortly after winning the election. The president-elect managed not only to put together the richest and most unqualified cabinet in history, but also filled his administration with many of the revolving-door insiders he had regularly lambasted on the campaign trail. While candidate Trump frequently called out Clinton (and other political opponents) for her connections to Goldman Sachs, for example, President Trump has created a “Government Sachs” of his own, employing five veterans from the infamous investment bank as top advisors, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Trump’s cabinet is the richest in American history, and its members have more combined wealth than a third of the American population. And for many of Trump’s top advisers, massive wealth seems to be the sole qualification. Billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has no experience in education (though she has spent much of her life trying to destroy public education), Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon with zero experience in housing policy (whom Trump seems to have chosen solely because of his ethnicity), Energy Secretary Rick Perry knew almost nothing about the Department of Energy before being tapped to run it (as a presidential candidate in 2012, he called for its elimination — though he was unable to name it during an infamous debate), and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has long opposed the department he now runs. The list goes on, but suffice it say that most of Trump’s cabinet members are about as rich — and unqualified — as the president himself.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/07/22/draining-the-swamp-of-brainpower-trumps-corrupt-administration-is-fueled-by-anti-intellectualism/
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