Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News host, has argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks will not have any sway over policy in his next administration.
The 75-year-old appeared on NewsNation on Wednesday night, saying that Trump is likely to concentrate power at the White House and simply have his department leaders follow his directives.
The commentator compared Trump’s incoming administration to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, saying that the president-elect will put in place a structure where cabinet members will simply follow his lead.
“The people that do department heads are going to say ‘yes, sir’ or they’re not going to be okay,” O’Reilly told host Chris Cuomo.
O’Reilly went on to describe Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller, who has been assigned the role of deputy chief of staff for policy, as “the most powerful man in the country, besides Donald Trump.”
“Very few people understand how Donald Trump is going to run the country. The second time around is going to be totally different than the first time, and this is why there is so much chaos and confusion,” O’Reilly argued. “So the first time he got elected in 16’, Trump didn’t know what he was doing, and he admitted that, and he took advice from a lot of people, and he appointed standard people like Jeff Sessions to run justice — disaster, the oil guy to be Secretary of State. It was ridiculous.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, lasted just over a year in the role between 2017 and 2018.
Trump has made several surprising and controversial picks for his cabinet, with one, former attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, being forced to end his bid for the post on Thursday amid allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, claims Gaetz has forcefully rejected. Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in his place.
Secretary of Defense nominee and Fox News host Pete Hegseth is also facing accusations of sexual misconduct, namely that he assaulted a woman in 2017, an allegation that he also denies.
Meanwhile, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, is facing criticism from the right for his pro-choice views and from others for his eclectic, and often unfounded, views on health.
The nominee to be the director of national intelligence, former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, has intelligence analysts worried because of her views on the war in Ukraine and comments seen as her backing Russia, as well as for conducting secret meetings with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
O’Reilly noted that in previous Republican administrations, such as those led by Presidents George W Bush and Ronald Reagan, members of the cabinet had significant input on policy matters.
But the former Fox News host suggested that the Biden administration also controlled most matters centrally from the White House.
“This time around Trump believes that he has figured it out,” O’Reilly said. “So all he wants is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did. He wants a cabinet that will do everything he says. He does not need policy coming out of those people.”
“All he needs is for them to pick up the phone when Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of policy, calls and says, ‘The president, would like you to do this. And they say, ‘Yes, sir,’” he added “The policy ... all of it is going to be made in the White House.”
