Trump Was Not Elected to Sound Retreat Voters Want “Peace Through Strength,” Not Defeatism

by Frank J. Gaffney  • Gatestone Institute • January 28, 2025

The Trump 2.0 presidency is scarcely a week old and a number of political appointees who do not share the president’s agenda are now in key positions in his administration. President Donald J. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – and our country – must not be represented, and undermined, by subordinates who disagree. Pictured: Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Hegseth (right) attend the 125th Army-Navy football game on December 14, 2024 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

• The Trump 2.0 presidency is scarcely a week old and a number of political appointees who do not share the president’s agenda are now in key positions in his administration. An epic struggle, it seems, is already underway to subvert the Trump administration from within.

• So how is it that three individuals who worked for Charles Koch are now serving as Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Defense (DASDs) or their equivalent, in some of the most sensitive positions in the government? The obvious answer is that Dan Caldwell was head of the Defense Department transition team and simply planted his friends in top jobs.
• A sizeable majority of the American people voted for a change in the nation’s foreign and defense policies, not a continuation of the failed ones of the Obama-Biden years. President Donald J. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – and our country – must not be represented, and undermined, by subordinates who disagree.

The Trump 2.0 presidency is scarcely a week old and a number of political appointees who do not share the president’s agenda are now in key positions in his administration. An epic struggle, it seems, is already underway to subvert the Trump administration from within. The problem is not simply a recalcitrant bureaucracy made up of “burrowed-in” Obama-Biden holdovers and leftist civil servants. Obstructionism of President Donald J. Trump’s policy of “peace through strength” from such quarters was expected.

In a well-researched article posted by The Free Press, Eli Lake documents the problematic views of several alumni of institutions funded by anti-Trump libertarian Charles Koch, recently installed inside Trump’s wire at the Pentagon.

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