WASHINGTON (AP) — The history of American politics has seen no shortage of presidents who have promised to shake up Washington once they get to the White House. But Donald Trump may prove to be in a class of his own, and he seems more interested in forcing the federal government into submission than realigning it.
In staffing his administration, Trump tends to select people who distrust or even despise the agencies they were chosen to lead, setting off a potential war of attrition between the up-to-date Republican president and American institutions.
“There has been nothing like what Trump is proposing,” said Doug Brinkley, a presidential historian. “We’re talking about dismantling the federal government.”
Trump’s approach will become even clearer this week when Kash Patel, his nominee for FBI director, travels to Capitol Hill for a first round of meetings with senators who will decide whether to confirm him for the post. Patel, a former national security official who has branded himself a zealous Trump follower, has talked about closing the agency’s headquarters, dividing its responsibilities and targeting Trump’s perceived enemies.
Greg Brower, a former U.S. attorney and the FBI’s top congressional affairs official, said Trump appeared to want to incorporate the country’s law enforcement agencies “into his political operation from the White House.”
“This is a major policy change that I’m not sure the majority of senators are willing to support,” Brower said.
Republican senators are already considering whether to support Pete Hegseth, whom Trump wants to lead the Pentagon despite allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement. Hegseth is an Army veteran and former Fox News commentator who described the military as awash in “woke” liberal ideology. He also wants to remove women from combat roles.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team and an incoming White House press secretary, said the next administration wants to “dismantle the deep state,” a term for entrenched officials who have frustrated Trump and his allies.
“President Trump was reelected by the clear mandate of the American people to change the status quo in Washington,” she said in a statement. “That’s why he has chosen brilliant and highly respected outsiders to lead his administration, and he will continue to stand behind them as they fight against all those who seek to derail the MAGA agenda.”
Margaret Spelling, who served as education secretary under President George W. Bush, said it was “probably not good leadership style” to treat government employees as adversaries.
“If you want to turn the tide or redirect the ship of state, you need help doing that,” she said. “And these are people who already work there.”
If Trump has his way, the former spelling department could be eliminated entirely. His chosen education minister, Linda McMahon, has never worked in this area. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for one year and served on the board of trustees of a private university. McMahon ran the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term and made a name for himself running World Wrestling Entertainment, a cultural juggernaut in which muscle-bound men pummel each other in elaborately scripted matches.
Trump’s plans for the federal government mix conservative ideology, which Washington has long viewed as too intrusive into Americans’ daily lives, with his personal vendettas. After being plagued by investigations and contradicted by career officials during his first term, the returning president has no interest in a repeat and is more skeptical of insider opinions that contradict his own instincts.
Some of his personnel decisions have alarmed political opponents, but Trump’s approach could prove attractive to voters whose trust in government has fallen to record lows in recent years. According to the Pew Research Center, only about two in 10 Americans trust the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. In 2000 – before the outbreak of a global financial crisis – only about four in ten said that there was an inconclusive war on terrorism and a global pandemic.
Kay Schlozman, a political science professor at Boston College, said Trump’s nominations could be seen as “an expansion of his ability to challenge the prevailing wisdom and challenge the perceived elites who always run everything.”
Some of the largest gaps between expertise and staffing have been identified in public health. Trump chose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services despite his reputation as one of the most prolific spreaders of unsubstantiated theories about the alleged dangers of vaccines.
Trump also chose Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of public health measures such as lockdowns and vaccination mandates used during the coronavirus outbreak, to head the National Institutes of Health, the country’s top medical research agency.
In other areas of government, loyalty is often valued over expertise. Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, never served on a committee dealing with environmental issues during nearly a decade on Capitol Hill. Now he’s on board to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Brinkley said it’s not unusual for presidents to try to change the way Washington works. Richard Nixon tried to circumvent government agencies by centralizing decision-making in the White House, and Warren Harding filled his Cabinet with business leaders.
But Brinkley said Trump’s approach is more vicious, and he appears to be grooming his staff to compete for the most eager.
“It has a gladiator feel,” he said. “They all want to show that they have what it takes to punish the so-called deep state, the legacy media or the Democratic Party.”
Another way Trump is targeting Washington is through the Department of Government Efficiency, an independent advisory organization led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk, the world’s richest man, and Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, plan to present ideas for dramatically reducing federal spending and cutting the government workforce. They also said Trump should bypass Congress whenever possible to create a possible conflict with the Constitution.
Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard University, agreed that Americans often doubt Washington’s effectiveness.
“But that doesn’t mean there will be an easy way to eliminate entire departments or functions of government because people will recognize that there is something at stake in these things,” she said.
However, according to Skocpol, chaos could be the real goal.
“Parts of American conservatism have tried to mess up government by controlling it and then use it as an argument for less government,” she said.
____ Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
