Some hosts on Russian state television are apparently hyped about Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. And their glee portends something ominous for the United States.
Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast who monitors Russian media, wrote this week about the various Russian media figures celebrating Trump’s picks to serve in his administration. For example, following Trump’s selection of MAGA conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, she reported that one host — Vladimir Solovyov — shared a particularly grim prediction of what Patel and the other picks might mean for Americans.
“What an excellent team is coming along with Trump!” Solovyov said on his show Sunday, according to Davis’ report. “Not with respect to Ukraine, but as far as everything else goes. If they are allowed to get in, they will quickly dismantle America, brick by brick. They are so great!”
View the clip posted to Davis’ YouTube page below:
According to Davis’ report:
In mid-November, when president-elect Donald Trump started to announce his future appointees, state TV host Olga Skabeeva gushed, “All of them are totally wonderful!” Evgeny Popov, Skabeeva’s husband and the co-host of Russia’s “60 Minutes,” concurred, describing Trump’s picks as his “radical dream team” and gleefully noting, “All of them personally despise Zelensky.” He cautiously added, “They aren’t friends of Russia, except for Tulsi Gabbard.”
I hate to say I agree with Russian state media, but on this particular point — the potential for Trump’s Cabinet picks to dismantle federal government agencies — I don’t see much room for argument.
Indeed, Trump’s picks seem hellbent on undermining many of the positive and productive goals espoused by the agencies they’ve been chosen to lead. That includes the aforementioned Kash Patel, the Trump loyalist tapped to lead the FBI after preparing a list of political targets he wants to go after; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-scientific conspiracy theorist Trump tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services; Pete Hegseth, the Christian nationalist-friendly former Fox News host picked to lead the Department of Defense; and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be the director of national intelligence despite widespread concerns about her historically friendly stance toward accused war criminals Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump appears to be constructing a kakistocracy — a government filled with incompetent or otherwise unsuitable characters. And based on Russian state TV, the Kremlin couldn’t be happier.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.