Apparently, America Is Full of the Wrong Kind of People

According to the Trump administration, so many people in the United States are the wrong kind of people...Then who makes up the right kind? Who belongs here — in our military, our government, our territory?

The administration invokes meritocracy as one way to answer those questions. As Trump put it in an executive order on his second day in office, “individual merit, aptitude, hard work and determination” should be the overriding factors when hiring workers, not just in government but throughout “key sectors of American society.”

This directive might be more persuasive if Trump had followed it when selecting key members of his administration. Did Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick to serve as attorney general, possess the individual merit needed to lead the Justice Department? Does Tulsi Gabbard have the aptitude required to become director of national intelligence, or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services? Is Pete Hegseth the hardest-working option to run the Defense Department?