That's according to conservative political commentator and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, who addressed the president-elect's flurry of appointments during an interview on American Family Radio Tuesday.
Trump’s appointees include one African-American but seven women, including such key positions as U.S. Attorney General with Pam Bondi. Housing and Urban Development pick Scott Turner is Trump’s only African-American selection for his Cabinet. It’s only one less African-American than Joe Biden picked when he entered office in 2020, Newsweek reports.
A former White House attorney in the first Trump administration said on an CNN appearance that Trump isn’t interested in diversity. "The American people voted precisely against dividing us, labeling us, on the basis of our race and our sex," argued May Mailman. "Instead, we just want the government and the economy to work for us."
She continued: "We are less interested in what somebody looks like or what their sex is, and we are far more interested in whether they're going to execute the president's agenda and whether they are going to unleash American businesses; [or] whether they're going to weaponize the Department of Justice against people who don't agree with them politically and against businesses that don't agree with them politically."
In one respect, D’Souza told AFR host Jenna Ellis, the Cabinet is diverse – ideologically, for example. Notable figures like Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Elon Musk bring diverse backgrounds and thought processes to the table, he noted.
“For example, Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio are two very different people and will bring different angles on foreign policy. But you need that kind of balance, I think, in presenting options to Trump,” said D’Souza, an Indian-American like Trump’s pick to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Vivek Ramaswamy.
In other words, qualifications trump skin color in Trump’s appointments. “The notion that we should have a Cabinet that 'looks like' America makes absolutely no sense,” D’Souza argued.
Praise for Waltz as National Security Adviser
Rep. Tim Burchett, in an appearance on Washington Watch Monday, praised Trump's selection of Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida) as National Security Adviser.
“That’s a very good selection. Michael Waltz and I came to Congress together. He’s a decorated Green Beret. He's briefed presidents in the past. He knows what's expected of him. He's not just some 'eye candy,' that’s for sure,” Burchett told guest show host Mark Alford.
The diversity Waltz may lack in skin color he brings in his experience and skill set, Burchett added. “He’s been on the ground, and he’s been in Congress," noted the congressman. "He understands the workings from both ways – of war and Congress. He will be a great, great benefactor to President Trump.”
Burchett, a member of the House Oversight Committee, will work closely with Ramaswamy and Musk as they head up the DOGE. The Department of Education and the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) are areas in need of great change, he said.
“The Lord just takes 10% off the top for the tithe. The Department of Education takes considerably more, and there’s not one, dare I say, bureaucrat in Washington, DC, who has ever taught a kid in Kansas to read. Let’s send some money to the states and let the locals decide what to do with it.
“Same with the folks at FEMA. Franklin Graham’s organization [Samaritan’s Purse] and some others out there ought to be able to qualify for this money to provide services,” Burchett argued.
FEMA, he suggested, could be a “flow-through” for money while decreasing the size of its operation as well as that of the Department of Education.
Experienced Trump doing things differently
D’Souza sees a completely different approach by Trump to filling out his team than he took before his first term. Back then, he said, Trump "the outsider" wasn’t as in-your-face with non-traditional selections such as he is now with RFK Jr. (for HHS secretary), Pete Hegseth (Defense secretary), and Tom Homan ("border czar").
One "in-your-face" pick – Matt Gaetz for Attorney General – has already fallen by the wayside when a tour of the halls of the Senate let him know he would fall short of the votes for confirmation.
“There’s a completely different strategy and tone from 2016 [when Trump felt like] he had to make peace with the establishment,” D’Souza observed, adding that Trump also underestimated then the depth and reach of those who would undermine him.
That "rookie approach" was costly to Trump during the pandemic, D’Souza said – a time when Trump thought there might be “bias in the media or in Hollywood."
"But he trusted the people in the white coats," D'Souza continued. "He thought, If I'm getting advice from [Anthony] Fauci, who's been around since the days of Reagan, it’s going to be objective. I can trust those guys.
"He did not know that the ideological rot, the political corruption that had seeped into many areas of government went way beyond the kind of the usual suspects.”
Now, according to D'Souza, Trump "the veteran" knows his way around the swamp – and that’s showing up as he picks his new team.
