When people apply for a job, they tend to expect predictable questions about their work histories, relevant skills and educational backgrounds. When it comes to those seeking positions in Donald Trump’s upcoming administration, the lines of inquiry are reportedly quite … different.
The New York Times, for example, reportedly spoke to several people involved in the hiring process for high-ranking positions inside the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies. They faced questions about their political loyalties.
The questions went further than just affirming allegiance to the incoming administration. The interviewers asked which candidate the applicants had supported in the three most recent elections, what they thought about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen. The sense they got was that there was only one right answer to each question.
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that those who either decried Jan. 6 violence or acknowledged the reality of the 2020 presidential election, found that their interview answers “were met with silence and the taking of notes.”
The applicants, the article went on to note, “didn’t get the jobs.”
While it’s probably not surprising to see reporting like this, it’s worth emphasizing that these questions, if the Times’ report is accurate, aren’t just about measuring loyalty to Trump, his agenda, and/or his vision. Rather, if the questions focused on Jan. 6 and the Republicans’ election conspiracy theories, it sounds as if job applicants were tested on their loyalty to Trump’s lies, too.
Making matters worse, the Times published a separate report on Silicon Valley billionaires and millionaires who have been “all over” the president-elect’s transition process, “shaping hiring decisions and even conducting interviews for senior-level jobs.”
Their involvement, to a degree far deeper than previously reported, has made this one of the most potentially conflict-ridden presidential transitions in modern history. It also carries what could be vast implications for the Trump administration’s policies on issues including taxes and the regulation of artificial intelligence, not to mention clashing mightily with the notion that Mr. Trump’s brand of populism is all about helping the working man.
The report, which also hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, made for an unsettling read. One of Elon Musk’s friends, for example, has reportedly interviewed candidates for jobs at the State Department, despite the fact that he has “no experience in foreign affairs.” Another Musk pal has reportedly interviewed those seeking Pentagon positions. A different Musk friend has also reportedly “conducted personnel interviews.”
Remarkably, the Times added that Musk’s mother has been “involved in the transition,” and she recently said during an on-air interview, “I like to sit in on meetings” related to her son’s Department of Government Ethics (DOGE).
For those already concerned about the kind of team the president-elect is assembling, reporting like this makes matters considerably worse.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com