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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

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It's a pretty big false dichotomy to present "people directly opposed to their policy platforms" as the sole alternative to people "picked on the premise of just one qualification: they'd be Yes Man/Woman".

Yes, I was using a false dichotomy to highlight the absurdity of the statement.

Every President surrounds themselves with people who are aligned with their policy platforms. For some reason, Trump is the one President where suddenly it's an issue.

There’s a difference between (a) hiring smart people you respect and generally agree with to give you their own opinions and help shape your decisions and (b) hiring people who will go along with anything you say and holding their careers and families’ safety over the fire.

No because Trump is interested in weasels who put loyalty to him above the law or the good of the country.

Trump doesn't give a shit about policy. He doesn't know anything about it and can't be bothered to learn.

Its just a viral racist corrupt scream all the way down.

> For some reason, Trump is the one President where suddenly it's an issue.

Because Trump is the first president whose hirelings

1. Used Signal to violate laws requiring retention of communication 2. Got caught by incompetently inviting a journalist to their high security chat?

They pick competent, experienced people who are aligned with their policies. Not Fox News presenters and YouTube influencers.

Are we really looking at the best group of people that the current president could find to do these roles that agree with his policy platform? There was no one else with relevant experience willing?

No, that was not suggested. You are not arguing in good faith.

It's pretty easy to compare the backgrounds of every prior secretary of defense with Pete Hegseth. They're typically people with significant experience managing government agencies, retired 3 and 4 star generals, or senators/congressmen with serious foreign policy experience. The last person with as little defense policy experience as Hegseth was probably McNamara, and he was President of Ford, e.g. someone who knew how to manage a large organization.

most people generally agreed with them but they also tried to pick people of talent and courage who might disagree on a number of issues. Trump doesn't care about any of that

Donald Trump "is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

Please don't copy/paste comments:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43478821>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42935580>

ah https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_(1962... maybe I should watch it, if its not redundant

>maybe I should watch it,

I strongly recommend it. Not because of this context, but because it's a fabulous movie with an amazing cast.

It’s wild.

Trump beings people on, they are yes men.

Trump fires people, he doesn’t like people who disagree with him?

Which is it?

It's both. If you get past Trump derangement syndrome and realize he's rotten to the core and basically terrible in countless ways.

Take Former AG Jeff Sessions. He was a yes man but also when he did absolute bare minimum legally by recusing himself Trump fired him for insufficient loyalty

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