Amateurs

The United States of America. Such an amazing country. So much ingenuity. So much endeavour. A land that stretches from The Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific  and within its boundaries there is endless goodwill, so much optimism, so much kindness. It is home to 349 million people making it the third most populous country on the planet.

With all of that in mind, what puzzles me is how can it be that the government of that great country is led by a bunch of amateurs, ill-qualified for their roles and often guilty of cretinous, toadying behaviour. Surely, surely, America contains hundreds of better qualified, more suitably experienced, perceptive and industrious citizens who would do a far better job than the amateurs  who currently occupy leadership roles within the US government.

Let's take a look at just five  random members of the current cabinet:-

Scott Bessent - Secretary of The Treasury

After Trump was elected president in 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee. In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. In February 2024, Bessent hosted a fundraiser in Greenville, South Carolina, that raised nearly $7 million for Trump's campaign. In relation to his past tax responsibilities, Bessent wilfully used loopholes and "write offs" to dodge payments of up to two million dollars. This came out in his confirmation hearing in the US Senate.

Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defence (aka "Secretary of War")

For ten years, Hegseth was a regular contributor to the right wing TV channel - Fox News, often spouting off about military matters. No doubt it was that media presence that led him to his current job. His character was severely questioned in his confirmation hearing for he has a history of drunkenness and womanising. Senator and former war hero, Mark Kelly, said this of Hegseth, "He is the most unqualified defense secretary in history".

Robert F. Kennedy Jr - Secretary of Health and Human Services

When he was a teenager, Kennedy was expelled from two boarding schools. Some Kennedy family members regarded him as the "ringleader" of a pack of spoiled, rich kids who called themselves the "Hyannis Port Terrors", engaging in vandalism, theft, and drug use. His first cousin Caroline Kennedy later blamed Kennedy for leading other members of their family "down the path of drug addiction", calling him a "predator". At Harvard, Kennedy continued to use heroin and cocaine, often with his brother David, earning a reputation that has been described as a "pied piper" and "drug dealer".  Later in his life, Kennedy began experiencing severe short and long-term memory loss and mental fog in 2010. In a 2012 divorce court deposition, he attributed neurological issues to "a worm that got into my brain and ate a 

portion of it and then died"

Linda McMahon - Secretary of Education

McMahon made a lot of money with her husband Vince by advancing wrestling events in America, having previously promoted other sports. When Trump appointed her to the role she now occupies,he said he wanted her to close down the department - "I want her to put herself out of a job." She used to refer to AI as A-One. An error-littered letter she sent to Harvard University about wokeness and curriculum concerns was returned to her with all of her many grammatical and spelling mistakes corrected. 

Markwayne Mullin - Secretary of Homeland Security

Mullin is from Oklahoma and ran his family's plumbing business until he decided to enter politics. During a Senate committee hearing in 2023, he challenged Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien to a physical fight, 

telling him "Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know 

where to find me. Any place, Any time cowboy". Mullin has a reputation for angry outbursts ad aggression. He received an associate plumbing degree in 2010 from Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. After the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal ICE agents in Minneapolis, Mullin 

called Pretti a "deranged individual" in a Fox News interview.

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Currently Trump's unnecessary war with Iran still rages. Nobody seems to know what Trump's aims are and Trump doesn't seem to know either. Perhaps he had better ask hiss boss - Netanyahu to explain. In the meantime who are America's peace negotiators? Why, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and a former business friend from the world of real estate - Steve Witkoff. Both men are supremely unqualified to perform such difficult diplomacy. They lack the moral compass, political experience and intelligence that  characterised the work of Joe Biden's Secretary of State - Anthony Blinken.

And as for James David Vance - let's not go there.

I guess that the preponderance of amateurs at the top of the US government is unsurprising when you consider that the oaf who appointed them is himself an amateur in the political sphere. He was a property developer who courted plenty of controversy and oversaw some spectacular failures in that field and then later he chaired a reality TV series. Hardly the perfect background for someone who is charged with leading one of the most significant and powerful nations on Earth. It should come as no surprise that his knowledge is as shaky as his judgement.

Amateurs - all of them! Would you want amateurs running a hospital, a school or a bread factory? Of course not - so why is it okay for a bunch of amateurs to "lead" what was once known as the greatest nation on Earth?