Donald Trumps Cabinet Picks Disagree With President-Elect on Some Key Issues

[question everything]

Source: WSJ

Donald Trump has assembled a cabinet and senior staff with divergent views on such issues as the deficit, trade, climate change, and Russia, posing a challenge for his administration as he tries to mold his own sweeping campaign themes into specific policies for governing.

The president-elect’s pick for budget director, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.), has opposed raising the debt ceiling, but Mr. Trump has proposed steep tax cuts and large increases in defense and infrastructure spending that many economists believe will cause the deficit to grow.

Several of his cabinet selections backed a trade deal negotiated by President Barack Obama with Asian nations, which Mr. Trump opposed and has vowed to abandon. His choice for the State Department, Rex Tillerson, has said he believes science proves climate change is being caused in part by human behavior, something Mr. Trump in the past has called a “hoax.”

(snip)

Thomas Barrack, a longtime Trump friend and chairman of the inaugural committee, said the president-elect manages with an “open door” policy, where aides debate the merits of proposals while Mr. Trump “curates” the information and makes a final decision. Yet many decisions made by the federal government don’t reach the presidential level, providing vast, independent powers to the far-flung bureaucracies run by the cabinet secretaries and their deputies. Monitoring one potentially rogue agency could be challenging for any new administration, and Mr. Trump may need to keep an eye on several of them to ensure they promote policies in line with his promises and not the preferences of his appointees.


Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-cabinet-picks-disagree-with-president-elect-on-some-key-issues-1482847201

[elleng]

1. Good. Let them all keep disagreeing

A LOT!

[LisaM]

2. My thoughts exactly.

The more dysfunctional they are, the better.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. There will be no molding

It's chaos. Discordant pick-and-choose, just like his campaign. He does
what he wants and thinks best at any given moment. Consistency is
strictly optional.

Or at least that's what I'm reading from it.

[Thor_MN]

4. Curates? How can a man who has the attention span of a gnat curate anything?

A dart throw would be preferable to what it likely is, poo thrown at a dart board...

[PearliePoo2]

5. WTF is this Orange idiot doing? Anybody have a clue? Does he?

With his Cabinet, it's more like a sadistic game of 'Pick a Prick'.

[OKNancy]

6. Get this. At a dinner with extended family, a young man who works in the oil and gas industry

has had several encounters with Tillison. I'll call him Steve. He works in Oklahoma, Texas and all over... He is a liberal Democrat.
He said in just his business dealings he would never peg Tillison as a right-wing nutter. Said he was fairly moderate in his discussions.
He also said he found him to be a compassionate man!! I said, " why do you say that?" He said he couldn't really say too much, but that he helped out some folks who were "less fortunate."

Who knows?

[question everything]

9. I think that he is pragmatic

He does what he does to get the best favorable treatment by Putin. And he will do whatever he thinks will be the best - by his standards - for the country. I suspect that he is not an ideologue.

[tammywammy]

7. Mulvaney's first test will come in March 2017 when the debt ceiling will need to be raised. n/t

[Doitnow]

8. They're all republicons aren't they? In the end

they all vote the same---and not for anybody else's good but their own. Lie, Cheat and Steal----that's their motto. Every. One. Of. Them. I think anyone who appears to be contradicting trump right now ---Well, that's just to make us all believe trump won't be so bad. It's like a version of Fake News. After inauguration, watch out!! All the talk about wait and see. That will be too LATE.