Trump’s Foreign Policy Team: Sycophants, Novices and Lackeys, Oh My!

President-elect Donald Trump has interpreted his electoral victory as a mandate to blow up the federal government, cancel climate action, empower crackpots at home and abandon allies abroad to the rapacious axis of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

His ominous plans to appoint some of the most unqualified people ever to inhabit the security and intelligence apparatus have U.S. allies bracing for chaotic economic fallout and rising instability that some fear could escalate into World War III.

With the exception of Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Trump’s picks for cabinet posts have alarmed competent national security veterans who forecast a decline in U.S. authority and credibility in an already unstable world.

Rubio sits on the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations and serves as vice chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence. Those are solid credentials for State Department leadership and ones that engender some confidence that the United States might remain engaged with Western allies in NATO, the European Union and other international organizations.

The Florida Republican has of late embraced more of Trump’s MAGA ideology, perhaps in hopes of landing the nation’s top diplomatic post. He is hawkish on China and will likely align with Trump’s call for 60% tariffs on Chinese imports. Such surcharges could dent China’s trade volume but would also raise prices for U.S. consumers.

Rubio has tread lightly on the subject of Ukraine and future U.S. aid to the striving democracy invaded by Russia in February 2022. The 53-year-old son of Cuban immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s revolution grew up in Miami’s community of ardent anti-Communists and was initially outspoken in support for Ukraine’s defense after the unprovoked war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Unlike others in [Trump’s] Cabinet cohort, Rubio is actually a pretty responsible and solid choice, even if he will make some MAGA Republicans unhappy,” GOP strategist Susan Del Percio writes in an MSNBC commentary.

Intel committee chairman Mark Warner, (D-Va.) has praised Rubio for his bipartisan work identifying national security threats. That collaboration included a scathing report on China, accusing the Communist powerhouse of posing “the greatest national security threat to the United States,” and a regime that “will stop at nothing to exert its global dominance.”

After Trump’s re-election on Nov. 5, Rubio offered a cautious forecast for America’s role in navigating deeply troubled international relations.

“The world is rapidly changing. You know, adversaries are uniting—in North Korea, Iran, China, Russia—[and] increasingly coordinating,” Rubio said. “It is going to require us to be very pragmatic and wise in how we invest overseas and what we do.”

Trump’s naming of Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.N. Ambassador is expected to promote whatever policies and actions the president-elect wants. She is fiercely loyal—the No. 1 quality Trump demands of his appointments—and has already trumpeted his unwavering support for Israel in its wars on Gaza and Lebanon. She also responded to intelligence provided to the Trump campaign by the Biden administration that Iranian militants had tried to organize the ex-president’s assassination by baselessly accusing the current White House of withholding that intelligence until after the election.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said after Trump’s victory that his country “will have to deal with the U.S. in the regional and international arena,” signaling that Iran might be open to negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran signed with the world’s major powers. Trump scuttled the hard-fought pact a year into his first presidency, restoring sanctions and leaving Iran unrestrained in pursuing nuclear weapons.

Iran is now within a few weeks of building a nuclear bomb, whenever it chooses to resume the work that was halted by the agreement. Trump has hinted at willingness to restart negotiations but has given full-throated support for Israeli’s bellicose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who would certainly oppose any U.S. reproachment with its arch-rival Iran.

Trump’s more controversial nominees have grabbed headlines for their inexperience, biases, defiance of science, moral turpitude and history of association with or admiration for dictators.

Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host dogged by allegations of sexual assault and white nationalist extremism, has been nominated for Secretary of Defense. The proposed Pentagon chief would oversee a federal workforce of nearly 3 million—1.3 million active duty military and 770,000 civilians. Another 800,000 National Guard members are under the command of state governors but available for federal operations in cases of disaster response and foreign threats.

The 44-year-old “anti-woke” crusader served as a platoon leader in Iraq where he was awarded a Bronze Star medal. He later served as a civil-military operations officer and as a training officer in Afghanistan. Critics of Hegseth’s appointment to head the largest national workforce in the world decry his lack of management experience in either military or civilian positions. Platoon leaders typically command fewer than 100 soldiers.

Hegseth has come under scrutiny following disclosure last week of a 2017 sexual assault allegation and police investigation after a woman filed a complaint following a California Federation of Republican Women conference at a Monterey, California, hotel.

“In 2023, Hegseth paid the complainant as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement and maintains his innocence,” Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said in a statement Sunday.

In his Fox & Friends role, Hegseth denigrated senior military leaders, including the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., the nation’s highest-ranking military officer and principal advisor to the president, the Pentagon and the National Security Council.

Hegseth has also denounced Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to hold that position after previous command of aircraft carrier strike groups and her current service as director of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A Wall Street Journal editorial last week warned the president-elect that “the military isn’t Mr. Trump’s enemy, and a purge mentality will court political trouble and demoralize the ranks.” Washington Post opinion writer David Ignatius on Friday noted that Hegseth “began hammering at the military chain of command when Trump was president” the first time and crusaded on behalf of special forces troops convicted of war crimes. Trump had the men’s sentences stricken.

Anonymous reports emerged over the weekend of Trump transition leaders reconsidering Hegseth’s appointment. But sources later said he was standing by his announced nominees.

Trump’s choice for Director of National Intelligence, former four-term Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard, has sparked even deeper consternation. The DNI chief coordinates 18 spy agencies and serves as intelligence gatekeeper to the president.

Gabbard, a 43-year-old military veteran, has parroted Kremlin talking points and spread debunked conspiracy theories on social media. She blamed the United States for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, citing “Russia’s legitimate security concerns” that could have been alleviated if Western nations had agreed to preclude Ukraine from ever joining the NATO defense alliance.

“Do you really want her to have all the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when she has so clearly been in Putin’s pocket?” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a CNN interview after Gabbard’s nomination.

Gabbard raised U.S. intelligence and security hackles with a 2017 visit to Syria’s dictatorial President Bashar al-Assad, whose civil war killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. His use of chemical weapons, summary executions and torture led to war crimes accusations.

Gabbard has been pushing for a pardon of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden who leaked highly classified documents in 2013 then fled to Russia, where he has remained for 11 years. He has been granted asylum and a Russian passport since 2022.

If confirmed as DNI leader, Gabbard would be in charge of the NSA and could leverage a pardon for the infamous whistleblower, assuming Trump’s own dubious relationship with Russia comports with hers.

Former DNI deputy director Sue Gordon told “Face the Nation” Sunday that Gabbard’s support for Snowdon “reflects a lack of understanding of who we are, and it reflects a lack of respect for what we do.”

Gabbard’s pursuit of a pardon for Snowdon was joined by recently-resigned Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, whom Trump has nominated for U.S. Attorney General. Gaetz’s long-running investigation for sexual misconduct with a minor, and drug-use allegations have encouraged Democrats and some Republicans to question his fitness for the country’s top legal office. The Senate has the power to advise and consent on high-level government nominations but it remains to be seen if they will use it to reject Gaetz for fear of incurring Trump’s wrath.

This rogues’ gallery of proposed Cabinet members should shake defenders of the Constitution and democratic rule out of their complacency over the consequences of another Trump term both for the country and the world. Trump and his closest MAGA allies are threatening to make “recess appointments” of his nominees, which would evade confirmation votes on the appointments if Senators abdicated their responsibility to advise and consent.

Republican Sen. John Thune enthusiastically embraced Trump’s vow to pursue “energy dominance” when the South Dakotan was chosen in a secret ballot to be the next Senate Majority Leader, replacing long-serving Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. Asked about his openness to letting Trump make recess appointments to get his Cabinet choices through, Thune said all options were on the table to ensure Trump gets what he needs to invoke his policies.

In contrast with the overwhelmingly negative reaction to many of Trump’s nominations, a few have been damned with faint praise.

“I actually had a really good day when Marco Rubio was nominated for Secretary of State, when John Ratcliffe was nominated for CIA and when Mike Waltz was nominated to be national security adviser,” Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, said Sunday on CBS Face the Nation.

“Waltz is a surprise choice but not a terrible one,” Post opinion writer Ignatius said of Trump’s National Security Advisor pick. The Florida representative is a former White House and Pentagon advisor and the first Green Beret to serve in the House of Representatives.

Even Trump’s nominees for primarily domestic responsibilities pose dire consequences for the environment and international relations.

Lee Zeldin, the proposed Environmental Protection Agency administrator, is expected to roll back efforts to fight climate change and deregulation to allow the fossil-fuel industries to ramp up production of gas and oil—and enrich Wall Street oligarchs in the energy markets.

Chris Wright, named to be Energy Secretary, would oversee the country’s energy supplies, research and development of nuclear power, 17 national laboratories and cleanup of nuclear waste deposits. He is CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, an advocate of fracking and a key pillar in Trump’s campaign to maximize oil and gas extraction. “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright has insisted.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Interior Secretary, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary and vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services all send a message to foes and allies around the world that the United States cannot be counted on to abide by international accords on climate protection or global health initiatives.

And then there are the billionaire oligarchs empowered to take a sledgehammer to the U.S. government. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has been paired with a similarly bombastic Vivek Ramaswamy to dismantle the alleged “deep state.” Their newly established nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency has been charged with dismantling federal agencies like the Department of Education and the Justice Department and slashing federal spending by, according to Musk, at least $2 trillion, or about 30% of the federal budget. Even a genius like Musk will have a hard time finding even a tenth of that suspected waste, given that mandatory spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the Defense Department, food aid for the poor and about 10% of K-12 education leave little to cut without gutting the earned income and vital services on which the non-billionaire classes depend.

Trump’s objectives in imposing an America First trade policy and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants threaten to worsen relations with China and Latin America, Mexico first among those states that will suffer. Mexican exports to the U.S. account for 27% of its GDP, compared with less than 3% for China, The Economist writes in warning of destabilizing consequences of drastic trade policy changes.

Moving more manufacturing to the United States will deprive Mexico of the jobs that outsourcing creates as well as disrupt supply chains in both directions. Mass deportation, which he cites as a priority, will flood Mexico with the jobless and homeless who are displaced. Rounding up and removing millions of undocumented migrants will also deprive U.S. farmers and food-processers of the low-paid manual laborers who do jobs most U.S. citizens won’t take when unemployment is at record lows.

Europe also is at risk if its $200 billion trade surplus with the U.S. is targeted. Goldman Sachs forecasts that Trump’s threatened tariffs could cut 0.5% off Europe’s GDP, with Germany taking the worst of it. Other countries with large trade surpluses with the U.S., like Vietnam, Canada, India, Japan and South Korea, could see their advantages diminish.

“If they abandon climate rules and we continue our course (to retain them), we are going to be fully knocked out in manufacturing,” Luis Garicano, a former member of the European Parliament now at the London School of Economics said of the blows to the bloc’s economy from its commitment to combating the environmental disasters already ravaging the planet.

Fears are growing that Trumpian goals of U.S. military and economic domination will push the contentious powers into another world war.

“We’re in a pre-war era leading to global war, the most serious, the most dangerous and the most challenging we have had since World War II,” Jack Keane, a retired U.S. general who heads the Institute for the Study of War, said in a recent television interview. “I do believe World War III is in the future.”

NATO chief Mark Rutte sounded a similar alarm about military threats spanning the globe.

“Russia, working together with North Korea, Iran and China, is not only threatening Europe, it threatens peace and security—yes, here in Europe—but also in the Indo-Pacific and in North America,” he said in a statement after meeting last week with French President Emanuel Macron.

The NATO chief pleaded for allied unity to face an anti-Western alliance. “We must stand together—Europe, North America and our global partners—to keep our people safe and prosperous,” Rutte said.

His plea for allied unity against the authoritarian axis appeared aimed at the United States and other Western countries where support for Ukraine has been weakening.

Biden’s announcement Sunday that his administration was lifting constraints on Ukraine’s use of U.S.-donated long-range missiles on Russian targets immediately spurred Kremlin warnings that any such attacks would be seen as direct NATO involvement and incite escalation.

Western military and political leaders justified the decision to untie Ukrainian defenders’ hands by pointing out that it was Russia that has escalated the worst fighting in Europe since World War II by deploying tens of thousands of North Korean troops into the battle against Ukraine and the firing hundreds of thousands of Iranian-supplied attack drones on Ukraine’s energy and civilian infrastructure.