These are some of Trump’s 'most worrisome' picks — here's why

27 November 2024

Although some of President-elect Donald Trump's picks for his incoming administration are almost certain to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate without significant delay — including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for secretary of state and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior — others are way more controversial.

Critics of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Trump's pick for national intelligence director, are attacking her as an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the medical field, opponents of Trump's choice for director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are slamming him as an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist with dangerous, unscientific ideas.

Trump's picks are also drawing condemnation for being climate change deniers.

In an article published on November 27, The Guardian's Oliver Milman explains, "Donald Trump's cabinet picks have been eclectic and often controversial, but a unifying theme is emerging, experts say, with the U.S. president-elect's nominees offering staunch support to fossil fuels and either downplaying or denying the climate crisis caused by the burning of these fuels."

The nominees Milman specifically mentions include Lee Zeldin as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and Chris Wright as energy secretary. Wright, Milman notes, once claimed that "there is no climate crisis."

Milman, however, described Burgum as a "moderate compared to these other picks, having accepted that the climate crisis is real and even, as governor of North Dakota, setting a target for the state to be carbon-neutral."

Daniel Esty, who focuses on environmental policy at Yale University in Connecticut, described Wright as "the most worrisome of these folks."

Etsy told The Guardian, "Some people didn't think Trump would actually try to execute this, but it looks like he really is going to pull back on climate change commitments, against the tide of history."

Read The Guardian's full report at this link.

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