International Experts Call Trump's Government Potentially Naturalizes Major Chaos

US President-elect Donald Trump. (Doc. X/@realDonaldTrump)

JAKARTA - Donald Trump's second inauguration will be held on Monday, January 20, 2025, United States time. Now, the upcoming Trump Administration, called experts, has the potential to experience many changes and major chaos in the early stages due to the nature of the people appointed by President-elect Donald Trump.

Earlier this week, Trump selected Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, television host Pete Hegseth as Minister of Defense, Congressman Mike Waltz as national security adviser, and former Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe as CIA director.

Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk and businessman and former US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

"Most observers generally accept Trump's appointment with feelings of belittle, fear and hate. Some of them may, in fact, fail to be confirmed by the Senate even though Trump may find a way to put them on his post," said Richard Bensel, professor of government at Cornell University., reported by ANTARA, Saturday, November 16.

"The change of position will be high because most of those appointed will not be good administrators and there will be a lot of chaos at the start of the new government," he added.

In line with that, Roderick Kiewiet, professor of political science at the California Institute of Technology, assumes there will be many substitutions in the Trump administration, as in the past.

Bensel thinks Rubio is the most common appointment so far, but most likely it relies on Rubio's absolute loyalty, meaning that Rubio's policies will reflect Trump's wishes.

At the same time, the expert suspected Rubio would not continue to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs because differences of opinion between himself and Trump are likely to emerge.

"The appointment of Hegseth and Waltz places people who have little administrative experience and policies in the two most important positions in the United States government. While they may have a strong policy tendency, lack of experience may make them make mistakes," he said.

"The mistake means that it is likely that the United States will fall into a war they don't want and that it will be even greater with their appointment," said Bensel.

South Bensel argues that the Trump administration will adopt a indifferent policy towards Ukraine if Kiev is capable of fighting Russia without additional assistance from the US.

"Relations with China may worsen, especially in the trade sector. Relations with Russia will improve slightly, except in terms of war in Ukraine, but in fact not much has happened between the United States and Russia," he said.

Kiewiet observed that the control over US foreign policy was contested by two groups: a group worrying Russia and a group worrying China.

"Robio, I believe, the main concern is about China and what we need to do to stem its political, economic and military ambitions (China)," he explained.

"What he (Rubio) will take is his crackdown on Iran, Cuba, and the authoritarian regime in Venezuela," Kiewiet said.

When asked about Hegseth and Waltz, Kiewiet said that Trump wants to achieve peace through power, by maintaining a strong armed force that focuses on the military and not a "large-scale project for the goal of gender and DEI equality (diversity, equality, and inclusion)."

As for Elon Musk's appointment, Bensel described it as a "good show", which will likely not have a significant impact on actual policy.

However, Kiewiet expects Musk to make little progress in curbing the US federal bureaucracy, but stressed that the bureaucracy is in a very formidable condition.

"The main thing to keep in mind here is that 90 percent of federal government spending Social Security, Medicare, veteran allowances, national defense, and debt interest are locked, and practically irreversible," he explained.