As the sights of the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration fade into our rearview mirror, and with the policies now-President Trump has implemented showcasing the U.S.’ current slide further into extreme conservatism, it’s imperative for California as a blue state to be aware of further changes that are likely to be implemented in the government and how they might affect us.
The most recent and concerning development in the White House is currently Trump’s aligning himself with the corrupt interests of billionaires, most notably Elon Musk, who has used his newfound state as effectively that of co-president to start mass-firing federal officials, dismantling USAID (the largest humanitarian aid organization in not only the US, but in the entire world), working with Trump to attempt to dismantle many federal agencies including the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Medicare, the National Institute of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Additionally, he has now unlawfully gotten access to Treasury Department documents containing sensitive information of all US citizens.
All in all, Trump has been in office for a month, and many already have the impression that the federal government is crumbling at the seams. However, we are still in for four more years of his presidency, and the federal policies of him and his allies will likely only increase in scale and magnitude. We are here to analyze the dominos that Trump has set up to aid with the changing of America according to his vision, and hopefully get perspective on what we can expect next.
Now, you are who you spend time with, and looking at Trump’s cabinet picks can help us determine the goals and priorities of our government for the next four years. Here are some of his more prominent picks.
Trump’s Cabinet picks
The new secretary of state is Marco Rubio, a former city commissioner, FIU professor, House of Representative speaker and twice-elected Senator from Florida, as well as having been both a candidate for Florida’s Attorney General and a presidential candidate in 2016. Most surprisingly, Rubio himself is the son of Cuban immigrants, which might hopefully lead him to act as a more moderate force of reason against Trump’s anti-immigrant sentiments.
The new Attorney General is Pam Bondi, nominated after Matt Gaetz pulled out of the race due to major backlash when the House Ethics Committee after accusations emerged of him of having paid for sex with an underage girl and other prostitutes, taken bribes and partaken in illegal drug usage.
Bondi, Florida’s former Attorney General, while better suited for the role than Gaetz, has still faced accusations of nepotism due to her being Trump’s personal lawyer. She has gone on record to worryingly pledge getting revenge on Trump’s political adversaries for their opposition to him, soliciting bribes from Trump during her serve as AG and supporting the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.
The new chief of staff is Susie Wiles, previous CEO of Trump’s political action committee Save America, former campaign scheduler for President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, former co-chair of Trump’s campaign both in the 2016 and 2024 elections and now the first female chief of staff. Many Democrats hope she will be a moderating influence on him.
The next defense secretary is Pete Hegseth. Pete Hegseth is a former Fox News commentator and former Army National Guard officer. The lowest ranking soldier ever to be nominated for the post, he has been under scrutiny for going on the air drunk and for his ‘Deus Vult’ and Jerusalem cross tattoos, which are common symbols for Christian far-right nationalist groups who advocate for America to become an explicitly Christian country and erode the separation between church and state. He also opposes the inclusion of women in combat duty and has defended soldiers charged with war crimes, including those responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison incidents, in which American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners during the Iraq war. At best, Democrats say he is hugely underqualified for the position.
Our new FBI director is Kash Patel, a former U.S. Department of Justice federal prosecutor, former chief of staff to Christopher C. Miller former secretary of defense and former senior advisor to Richard Grenell, the FBI director during Trump’s 2016 presidency. A deep Trump loyalist, Patel openly supports the heavily debunked conspiracy theory of 2020 being a rigged election and vowed revenge against Trump’s adversaries, as well as being vehemently opposed to the FBI’s investigation of potential acts of fraud by Russia during the 2016 election. Patel has also gone on record to sell COVID vaccine placebos to the vulnerable during the height of the pandemic.
Our next Health and Human Services is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a politician, chairman of the Children’s Health Defense organization and prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. Discrediting basic scientific research, Kennedy has gone on record asking Americans not to get their kids vaccinated, claiming antidepressants cause school shootings, supporting the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism and wishing to eliminate liability protections for drug companies. He is also associated with a lawyer who had submitted a petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to try and revoke approval for the polio vaccine. Doctors have also found a dead brain worm and high levels of mercury in Kennedy’s head, which cause brain fog, memory problems and an overall decline in function.
His pick for the Department of Education is Linda McMahon, a former WWE wrestling performer with little political experience. A long-term donor to Trump’s campaign, she will likely be in charge of his promise to dismantle the Department of Education during his term, as well as carrying out his plans to cut federal funding to schools teaching the history of slavery and discussing LGBTQ+ topics.
Our new Environmental Protection Agency head is Lee Zeldin, a former House of Representatives member, New York Senator and former New York governor nominee. Having frequently voted against the Clean Air Act, he has pledged to roll back a rule limiting automobile tailpipe pollution and reverse New York’s ban on fracking, a harmful oil and gas drilling technique. He has also shown opposition towards expanding protections for natural areas.
Our new director of National Intelligence is Tulsi Gabbard, a former U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s second congressional district, former Hawaii state legislator, 2020 Democratic presidential primaries candidate and Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. An outspoken Russia sympathizer, Gabbard believes in the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was creating bioweapons against Russia, “forcing” Russia to invade them. This sympathy has earned her praise on Russian TV, and her inclusion in the cabinet is a worrying sign of America’s potential slide into allying with Russia and, potentially even North Korea.
Trump’s policies
Currently, Trump’s own domestic policies are most focused on the dismantling or lessening of environmental protections under the EPA, resuming active oil drilling, pardoning the participants in the Jan.6, 2021, attempted insurrection, ending birthright citizenship, slashing taxes for the wealthy, cracking down on rights for transgender individuals in terms of legal recognition and gender-affirming care and mass deporting up to 20 million immigrants.
An interesting note in regards to Trump’s domestic policies is also his relationship with TikTok, which he supported the nationwide ban of in 2020, but has famously now changed his stance to be in support of the platform, acting to delay the ban for 90 days.
While a shocking change in stance, the reason for it is likely due to his attempt to appeal to young voters, as he stated in a post-election news conference: “You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points and there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it.” His claim to have won the majority youth vote, however, is false — former presidential candidate Kamala Harris had led the youth voters 51% to Trump’s 47% during the election.
More locally to California, Trump has already expressed readiness to use his presidential power to target the state due to his distaste of our overwhelmingly Democratic population, including potentially cutting off or limiting the relief for the LA wildfire crisis.
His projected foreign policies include drastically increasing tariffs to 25% on all imported goods and as high as 60% on Chinese goods), ending the war in Ukraine (potentially through threatening Ukraine with cutting off their funding to force them to give a large amount of land to Russia), halting funding to the World Health Organization and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord.
All that being said, it’s clear that at least at first, the groups who’ll have to face the brunt of Trump’s new laws during the next four years will be vulnerable populations such as immigrants and transgender people.
Considering the school’s overwhelming population of immigrants or children of immigrants, that may put some even in a wealthy area like this in the administration’s cross hairs. For now, it’s important to stay informed and fight back in ways big and small against Trump’s and his followers’ push to remake America in their own image.
