Slate’s Chief Political Correspondent, Jamelle Bouie, published a bitter diatribe against President-Elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, where he claimed, “Trump rode white populism to the White House,” while bashing his cabinet selections. “To run the government, he has picked men and women who disdain the missions of their assigned agencies, oppose public goods, or conflate their own interests with that of the public,” Bouie opined.
“And as a cadre of tycoons, billionaires, and generals, Trump’s executive branch is a rebuke to the idea that government needs expertise in governing,” he continued to whine, before slamming each one. One such target was Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Education. He knocked her for supporting school choice, charter schools, and voucher programs. He cited a New York Times opinion column in his criticism.
“It’s the antimatter cabinet—an ungovernment brought forth by reactionary hostility to the idea of the public, a throwback to the industrial oligarchy that eventually brought American democracy to its knees,” he proclaimed.
Bouie then argued that Trump’s picks were “a slap in the face” of his supporters, writing, “And on a superficial level, set against the rhetoric of Trump’s campaign, these appointments look like something beyond an expression of hostility to government: They look like a betrayal.” He went on to argue that Trump had not drained the swamp as he promised, but installed them in greater positions of power.
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It’s interesting how the very same people who were so sure Trump would lose in a landslide suddenly know how all his supporters feel about his cabinet selections. “It’s tempting to think that Trump will suffer for these choices, that his voters will reject him for embracing the same figures and forces he decried during the campaign,” he hoped. But, according to Bouie, Trump wouldn’t suffer because his supporters were racist.
“When Trump railed against “elites,” he wasn’t decrying the rich and powerful,” the radical leftist declared, “For Trump, ‘elites’ are defined by the people with whom they sympathize. And in his narrative, they sympathize with the racial adversaries of his supporters: Hispanic immigrants, Muslim Americans, and black protesters.” The lessons of the 2016 election were apparently lost on Bouie.
Trump’s cabinet picks know precisely how their agencies are hurting and failing the American people and will move to change how they’re operated, that is a benefit for hiring their opponents. It’s hard to claim “this is what white populism looks like” when Trump had chosen minorities to be on his cabinet (and increased the GOP’s share of the African-American and Latino vote as compared to 2012). What the left truly fears is the rolling back of their failed policies and losing their control on power.
