Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

In 1947, the U.S. Congress passed the National Security Act, which created the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency.  These institutions were often misused during the worst days of the Cold War and, more recently, in the Global War on Terror.  Nevertheless, there are historical records on the decision making that took place, and there were successes in such fields as arms control and disarmament as well as the building of national security alliances in Europe and Asia.

The Trump administration has essentially neutered these agencies and created something far worse—the appointment of unqualified individuals with loyalty to Trump and not to the national security interests of the country.  These misfits have influential power in decision-making, and and they have consistently made poor, and even illegal, decisions.

A perfect example of the failure of decision-making is U.S. actions in the Middle East, particularly the war against Iran and going to war aligned with Israeli forces.  In doing so, the Trump administration bypassed the expertise that exists within government agencies on Middle Eastern issues.  Intelligence warnings about Iran’s likely closure of the Strait of Hormuz and military warnings about the limits of U.S. weapons supplies were ignored.

Another continuing blunder is giving a group of individuals with no Middle Eastern or even national security experience to dominate diplomatic exchanges in the region and to profit from their bilateral exchanges.  These so-called diplomats are Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Wytkoff, the president’s close friend.  They seem to have no appreciation of the serious mistakes that have been made with regard to Iran over the years, including the toppling of a democratically elected prime minister in 1953, the backing of an increasingly autocratic Shah, the secret support to Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran, and Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran.

In addition to Kushner and Wytkoff, assignments have been given to two individuals with long-term personal and financial connections to the region: Massad Boulos and Tom Barrack.  Boulos, whose son is married to Trump’s daughter, is the senior advisor for Arab and Africa Affairs; Barrack is the ambassador to Turkey and the special presidential envoy to Syria and Iraq.  These guys are businessmen, not diplomats.  Boulos has serious conflict-of-interest connections with Trump’s mingling of private family business and official Middle Eastern policy.  Barrack has past legal liabilities, including a 2021 federal indictment for acting as an undisclosed agent for the United Arab Emirates.

The most egregious example of conflict of interest now includes the U.S. Army, which has “directly commissioned four big tech executives to be lieutenant colonels, with no military background.” Moreover, they will “not recuse themselves from business dealings with the Department of Defense,” according to military.com.

At the same time, Secretary of Defense Hegseth has appointed former House speaker Newt Gingrich to be co-chair of Project Meridian, a task force focused on automated, artificial intelligence-powered military hardware for domains ranging from ”from under the earth to beyond the moon,” according to Hegseth.  Gingrich has no military service background, and played an important role in getting President Clinton to abolish the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in the 1990s.

Finally, Trump has appointed Jay Clayton, the unqualified Director of National Intelligence, to chair the White House Super Intelligence Force (SIF).  Clayton has no background in intelligence matters or artificial intelligence.  His panel includes no one with a background in formal computer science.  Clayton is a corporate lawyer, not a data scientist, and there is no reason to believe his panel will recommend anything other than corporate self-policing, which Trump favors.  Clayton’s vice chair is Emil Michael, who has criticized certain AI labs for  being hostile to the war fighter.

National security, like national health, environmental protection, and consumer protection, will have to be rebuilt when the nation moves on from the Trump era.  There have been huge setbacks, particularly a loss of skilled personnel in these areas as well as a loss of institutional memory.  The strategic alliance with Israel, the war with Iran, the derogation of environmental protection, and the measles outbreak are just some of the tasks to be confronted.  The challenges are difficult, and it will take years to reverse the damage that has been inflicted on the nation.  Meanwhile, the grifting and the corruption continue.