President Trump has routinely said that he “only hires the best.” Well, we’re not sure what he meant by this, because his latest appointees have some interesting backgrounds.
An examination into the resumes of Trump’s political appointees shows that he has been fiercely loyal in giving top posts to former campaign staff and volunteers. That’s great, but they also have little to no experience with federal policy, and most of them don’t have minimum qualifications such as a college degree.
This latest batch of appointees is even worse. Trump is deciding to give top jobs at the USDA to a long-haul truck driver, a country club cabana attendant and the owner of a scented-candle company.
The truck driver Trump decided to hire at one of the highest pay scales for the federal government, a GS-12, makes $79,720 a year. That position requires a master’s degree. Yet, Nick Brusky’s resume doesn’t show any indication he even graduated from college. That’s a problem. But, one thing Brusky did have, was experience working for Trump on his campaign in the battleground state of Ohio.
Per Politico:
“There is a clear prioritization of one attribute, and that is loyalty,” said Austin Evers, American Oversight’s executive director, who provided the documents after his organization received them in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. He said the group sought résumés for Trump administration political appointees from across the federal government and found an abundance of former campaign workers in positions that did not appear to match their qualifications. “The theme that emerges is pretty clear: What do you have to do to get an administration job? Work on the campaign,” he added.
The story is the same for the others Trump hired. They all worked on his campaign. Christopher O’Hagan, only had one job listed on resume prior to joining Trump, and that was a cabana attendant. How is this person qualified?
A former USDA official told Politico that putting people with such inexperience in such highly technical roles is “very unusual,” and it could have an adverse impact on policymaking.
“By the time these people are serving in confidential assistant roles, they are sitting on a very thin layer in government bureaucracy. If you just have someone with no higher education and no experience and no background in policymaking as the arbiter on these questions, that’s pretty unusual.”
One reason for the hirings could be Trump’s inability to find people who are willing to work in his administration. Even with the latest batch of appointees, Trump is still behind schedule hiring for the agency’s 200 political positions that span across all 50 states.
