As most, if not all, people know, November 5th was Election Day in America. Similarly, everyone knows that Donald J Trump won the popular vote and the electoral vote 312 to 226 with a sweep of every single swing state. Many renowned experts predicted the vote to go towards Kamala Harris such as Dr. Allan Lichtman who has been known to successfully predict the popular vote for the past ten elections. Along with Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register pollster, who strongly predicted that Harris was going to sway the votes of a large number of Iowa’s independent women. Since the election, Selzer has since retired. Harris, on Wednesday afternoon, concluded her campaign with her concession speech at Howard University, encouraging her voters to remain optimistic despite the loss.
The most notable event since the election, has been the sporadic cabinet nominations from Trump. Many of his nominees need Senate confirmation before they are to begin in their positions, while others do not need confirmation. One of the hottest topics and most well-known scandals has occurred with the original attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz. Within the last couple of days, he has withdrawn from consideration after his nomination brought forth a House ethics committee inquiry. Gaetz has faced extreme scrutiny after a woman spoke out about him paying her for sex at an invitation-only party in Florida, where, for reference, prostitution is illegal. In the same interview, the woman also spoke about how Gaetz also had sex with her friend who was 17 at the time. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the investigators that Gaetz had paid them for sex multiple times after. In the same time span, Gaetz was also investigated over sex-trafficking allegations. In place of Matt Gaetz, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general.
Other nominees include: Marco Rubio, secretary of state; Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense; Kristi Noem, Homeland Security; Mehmet Oz, Medicare and Medicaid administrator; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Department of Health. These nominations have led to multiple questions being asked, such as how qualified are these candidates? For example, Pete Hegseth is most known for his job as a Fox News host, though he is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. However, in comparison to his predecessor, Lloyd J. Austin III, he has absolutely no experience. Austin was a West Point graduate, served 41 years in uniform, retired as a four-star general after three years as commander of U.S. Central Command. Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota and a former potential candidate for vice president, was selected for the Secretary of Homeland Security with absolutely no experience. She comes from leading a state of just over 900,000, where the most she had to do was deal with flooding, blizzards, and the occasional tornado. It has been speculated that she only got the job for her loyalty to Trump and her countless times of sending the SD National Guard to the Texas border. Noem is also known for successfully getting herself banned from every tribal reservation in the state, nine of them. Robert F. Kennedy, originally a presidential candidate, withdrew from the election and endorsed Trump. He is a well-known vaccine critic, believing that vaccines cause autism.
Donald J. Trump has selected nominees that many have thought to be incredibly unqualified for their positions, but there are others, such as Thomas Homan, Karoline Leavitt, and John Ratcliffe, who have all had experience in their chosen fields. On January 20th, Trump will be inaugurated for his second term.