Get to Know Trump’s Appointees

People across America have been expressing their mixed feelings about Trump’s appointed cabinet members through social media. Scandals are surfacing and controversy is erupting, so Madison Dodger Online has provided accurate descriptions of two of America’s new appointees and their intentions.

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that the new Secretary of State, aka the chief advisor of foreign affairs, will be Rex Tillerson, who has supported the Republican party throughout his life. Some find this choice worrisome because of Tillerson’s strong business ties to Russia and to fellow associate Vladimir Putin, particularly for the recent uncovering of the Panama Papers (11.5 million leaked documents discussing financial information belonging to over 214,488 people). So, Russia aside, who is Rex Tillerson? Tillerson was the president of Exxon Neftegas, and he hold $245 million in Exxon stock. Regarding politics, Rex opposes sanction and  believes that they will not work unless carried out well, a difficult task to undergo. When considering environmental issues, Tillerson says that fossil fuels are the easiest, cheapest, and most effective source of energy and supports the continuation of using fossil fuels. He is a strong supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an organization that joins the forces of 11 different nations to lower trade barriers and establish open markets for economic progress to be made.

Tillerson spoke at a meeting regarding foreign relations to say, “Should the United States seek so-called energy independence in an elusive effort to insulate this country from the impact of world events on the economy, or should Americans pursue the path of international engagement, seeking ways to better compete within the global market for energy? Like the Council’s founders, I believe we must choose the course of greater international engagement … The central reality is this: The global free market for energy provides the most effective means of achieving U.S. energy security by promoting resource development, enabling diversification, multiplying our supply channels, encouraging efficiency, and spurring innovation.”

Another crucially significant job is that the United States’ new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, Mike Pompeo, a long-time politician in the Republican Party. Pompeo studied mechanical engineering at West Point Military Academy and became Armor Branch cavalry officer in the army, and later graduated from Harvard Law School. His last fighting experience was in the Gulf War. With a strong foundation in his education, Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace and Private Security and later sold it and instead became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment company. Regarding Mike’s political views, he does not support abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk, he is against regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and he is against windpower. He is in opposition to these government-supported organizations because he does not think that they are cost-effective, the taxes required to pay for these environment-friendly power sources being too high and damaging to the US’s economy. Pompeo is endorsed by the National Rifles Association, and is in support of gun laws and the second amendment. He is against the Affordable Care Act and the requirement that genetically modified organisms must be labelled on food labels. Mike supports the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs and has criticized Obama greatly for shutting down the CIA’s private prisons and ending torture laws.
Lastly, Pompeo does not believe that Obama has been appropriate or respectful to the US military, accusing him of “unforgivably failing to provide the total commitment of our national means to our servicemen in the field.”