When Abraham Lincoln was putting together his Cabinet in 1861, he famously included several people who had opposed him in the 1860 election. Among them were Attorney General Edward Bates, Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, and Secretary of State William Seward. I'm particularly glad for that last pick since he is in large part the reason the land I sit on at the moment is part of the United States and not Russia.
Lincoln said of these choices, as reported in Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," that:
We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.
I recommend Goodwin's book; it's an interesting look at Lincoln as a politician and as a team-builder.
Lincoln's motivation for this team-building exercise was, reportedly, to fill these essential roles with the best men for the jobs – not political sycophants. As a practical matter, it wasn't without its problems, as Salmon Chase schemed to replace Lincoln on the 1864 Republican ticket.
Which brings us to Donald Trump. In the last few days, former President Trump has received a few interesting endorsements indeed. Could he be considering a Lincoln-style team of rivals, should he win a second term? Should he consider such a team?
See Related: RFK Jr. Takes It to Church in Tucker Interview
Full Circle: Former Democrat Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Endorses Trump
My answers to those questions, at this juncture, are "Yes, it's very likely" and "Yes, with conditions." Were I advising President Trump, I'd counsel caution. There's a place for some of those people, but I'd exercise a little caution. So let's look at three candidates.
Elon Musk. According to Trump, Musk is "too busy" to have a role in the administration.
"He wants to be involved. Now look, he's running big businesses and all that, so he can't really – I don't think he could be Cabinet. I'd put him in the Cabinet, absolutely, but I don't know how he could do that with all the things he's got going," Trump said.
"But he can sort of, as the expression goes, consult with the country and give you some very good ideas," Trump said and suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) could be an area in which Musk's expertise could aid the federal government.
Yes, Musk could consult on those things; he's something of a First Amendment absolutist, which is good. But there's another role in which someone like Elon Musk could offer some valuable insight: He could certainly show NASA a thing or two about the state of the art in spacecraft.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I'd be very cautious here. Like most modern-day Kennedys, RFK Jr. remains a liberal in most of his policy positions. He has himself stated that he disagrees with Donald Trump on a variety of issues, and is supporting him on a big one — making America healthy again. That appears to be RFK Jr.'s hot-button issue, and it's one in which he has made some good points.
He wouldn't make the worst Director of the National Institutes of Health. It would give him an outlet for the considerable energies he seems to expend on advocating for some common-sense things, like diet, exercise, and so on — and maybe, just maybe, with a little judicious prodding from the White House, he could turn that massive bureaucracy into something a little more efficient.
Tulsi Gabbard. I'm not 100 percent convinced by Tulsi's seeming turnaround on things like the Second Amendment. She was a Democrat for a long time before a lot of sudden reversals; granted, in Hawaii, one is a Democrat or one is frozen out of the political system. But she does sound sincere:
Tulsi Gabbard is also a military veteran, having served with the Hawaii National Guard and later as a Lieutenant Colonel in a California-based Army Reserve formation. She has spoken frequently and passionately on the debt the republic owes those who have served it in the armed forces, particularly those who were injured in the line of duty. She would make an excellent Director of Veteran's Affairs. My wife depends on the VA for her medical care, being a 100 percent disabled veteran herself, and believe me, that organization could use some improvement. Maybe Tulsi could make that happen.Trump's first-term Cabinet wasn't exactly a team of rivals, and to be perfectly honest, he made some bad picks. We can hope he has learned something from that experience and will be looking outside the Beltway for some more unconventional candidates. Frankly, I'd prefer more picks from the private sector. Washington has been run for far too long by people who have never done an honest day's work — for example, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden — and we could use more people who really don't want the job but might respond to an appeal to help set the nation a-rights.
Of course, first, former President Trump has to win the election. Elon Musk, RFK Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard may be able to help with that as well. But that's a topic for another story.
