As each Cabinet announcement draws fresh criticism of the wealth, connections or opinions of Donald Trump’s latest appointees, many Americans who voted for him say the president-elect is doing what he promised to do: draining the swamp.
And they’re excited.
To them, the idea of a defense secretary nicknamed “Mad Dog” is bliss. They rejoice in an energy secretary who once said he would eliminate the Department of Energy. And while some Trump supporters balk at ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, they say they will trust Trump’s judgment about his secretary of state nominee.
These voters say the affluence of his Cabinet picks is an advantage, not a liability.
“The guys he’s putting in there, they don’t need to do this. They’re independently wealthy,” said Trump voter Roger Mansfield, 67, a small business owner in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. “They don’t need any more money. The motivation is to make pragmatic, rational business decisions. What could be wrong about that?”
The Associated Press interviewed Trump voters about his Cabinet picks and other postelection revelations, such as a CIA assessment that Russia interfered in the November election on Trump’s behalf. While certain Republicans in Congress have endorsed investigations into the Russian meddling, the idea drew jeers from Shay Chamberlain, 37, of Menomonie, Wisconsin.
“That’s kind of ridiculous,” Chamberlain said. “I tried to influence the elections, you know what I mean? I mean, we all did when we went on Facebook and put silly memes on there and tried to influence our friends to go one way or another.”
Some Cabinet choices have been called into question for their lack of experience, their extraordinary wealth, or their past relationships with the departments they are to lead. Most of the criticism has come from Democrats, but some Republicans have also raised doubts.
John Barnes, a 60-year-old Air Force retiree living in Albuquerque, said he liked that Trump was “hiring outsiders and not local yokel knuckleheads.”
