I have stated numerous times that, for the most part, I think Trump is doing okay with his nominations.
There are some that are rather questionable, however.
The media is now blowing up over several key appointments that also happen to be major donors of Trump’s.
The Payoff
This is what happens in just about every administration, but the media always tends to pay more attention when Republicans are doing this.
Usually, however, these donor appointments are to ambassadorships, not cabinet posts that are making policy.
Trump has a few cabinet posts that are going to big donors, but most of them have experience in their roles.
The one who is clearly a question mark is Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education.
McMahon is a longtime ally of Trump going back to his days as a TV star, even having appeared on the WWE a few times with the McMahons.
This time around, McMahon donated more than $20 million to help get Trump elected, and she ended up getting the Secretary of Education post even though she has almost no experience in this role.
The only thing I could find remotely relevant was an appointment to a Connecticut School Board, a position she resigned from less than a year later because she wanted to run for Senator (you cannot sit on the board and solicit campaign donations).
McMahon lost both of her runs for office, and the rest of her resume is a legal assistant and working with her husband at the WWE.
I wasn’t really thrilled last time around when Trump appointed her to head the SBA, but at least she had some real-life business experience to back that up.
She is one of a handful of appointments I think will face significant resistance when it comes time to be vetted by the Senate.
