A MAGA lawsuit and hope for the future

Personnel is politics, as America learned in the Trump administration. It’s time to build the bank locally.

President-elect Donald Trump came to DC with a clear mandate for his agenda: build the wall, end the wars, put America first in the economy, and drain the swamp.

Despite almost total and vicious opposition from mainstream media, Wall Street, Big Tech, the Pentagon, the Secret Service, the FBI, Hollywood, academia, and the GOP leadership, Trump prevailed. His victory came not because he spent the most, but because people agreed with his agenda and supported him. That was an amazing achievement.

There’s an old adage in the salons of Washington, DC: “People are politics.” Just like in the business world, a government agency must have the right people in positions of authority in order to successfully implement a plan of action. Unfortunately, Trump failed miserably. He repeatedly chose the wrong leaders for his government, many of whom did not support his agenda.

Trump’s instinct to reach out to the establishment was correct, and Reince Priebus could have served as a supporting adviser to facilitate such outreach, but making Priebus chief of staff was a grave mistake. Priebus and his swampy cronies swamped political appointments to federal agencies and blocked the appointments of true supporters of Trump’s America First agenda. The early hiring decisions by Priebus and his allies weakened Trump’s ability to fulfill promises made during his successful campaign.

The top echelons of Trump’s foreign policy team represented the most blatant distance from his campaign promises to end the wars and put the welfare of Americans first. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was promoted and advised by Condoleezza Rice, a key architect of the Bush-era’s disastrous foreign military adventures. John Bolton, whom Trump hired as national security adviser, was a fervent advocate of American military intervention. Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis played a key role in the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper worked in George W. Bush’s Defense Department before lobbying Raytheon, a weapons supplier notoriously committed to increased American intervention.

If Trump had hired architects with his foreign policy team’s track record, his buildings would have collapsed. Unfortunately, the list goes on with hundreds of other appointees placed in each of the national security agencies – enough to publish a book.

Another fatal flaw in the implementation of Trump’s foreign policy agenda was his reverence and respect for the generals. The armchair officers with their numerous colorful campaign ribbons took advantage of Trump’s fascination with the American military. Many of them had only led our militaries to failure, all at the tragic cost of our citizens and the unfortunate peoples of the lands we invaded. But these generals do not view their disastrous successes as failures, for disaster after disaster they have been rewarded with promotions and ever-increasing budgets. In no other industry can leaders hold themselves accountable when every project they are responsible for fails to deliver the promised results.

Due to his administration’s chaos and constant attacks, President Trump has often found himself isolated and leaning on his family. However, Trump didn’t fully understand the risk of giving gatekeeping authority to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, someone with no real connection to the MAGA base. Jared grew up a limousine liberal in a culture that despised the concerns and interests of Americans in flyover country. Jared may have impeccable manners, but his political presence didn’t extend beyond New York’s Upper East Side society.

A prime example of Jared’s departure from the Trump base was when he hired Brooke Rollins as his presidential adviser and later promoted her to chief domestic policy adviser. Rollins is a bushie proponent of open borders. Rollins now heads the America First Policy Institute, which has hired former appointees who failed to implement Trump’s agenda while he was in office.

During his tenure as chief strategist in Trump’s White House, Steve Bannon was at times able to bypass the anti-Trump cadre to implement the “America First” agenda. However, he was quickly driven out and replaced by swamper loyalists like Kushner acolytes like Rollins or Vice President Mike Pence.

When President Trump directly asked to hire specific people, they were often held back by staff who walked slowly and played through the system. Many conservative CVs were not even considered. At times the government seemed to have a policy that said “MAGA patriots don’t have to apply.” Even ignored was former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is a well-known crusader against voter fraud and predicted the troubles of the 2020 election.

Some of the same people who helped guide the Trump administration’s policy failures still advise him. They could again undermine a future Trump administration’s ability to succeed. So what should we do? Go local.

Donald Trump has boldly created a movement dedicated to his policies of protecting our borders, ending destructive foreign intervention, making decisions based on what is good for America, and strengthening America at home. Ten years ago these ideas were difficult to debate, but now they’ve entered the mainstream. There is much to do.

We should seek to identify and endorse good candidates for school boards, county and city commissions, Republican county committee members, poll workers, sheriffs, local and state district attorneys, state officials, and state senators.

Why focus on the lower levels? Because a robust, aggressive underclass in our federal system will make it far more difficult for single-party trolls to undermine the very work of reforming our country. And more important than building a solid base, all Americans who believe in MAGA must be ready to confront and eliminate those opposed to the America First agenda in 2024. Preparing now to fight these enemies of freedom will be the best defense against them when it comes down to it.

George D. O’Neill, Jr. is an artist based in rural Florida.