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Our View: Let Trump fill his offices

Our View

This week — like just about every other week since the election — Donald Trump is coming under criticism. This time it is for his appointment of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a White House senior adviser.

“Nepotism!” some trumpet. “It doesn’t pass the smell test,” others say. But the point is, appointing a family member to this kind of position is not illegal (appointing him to a cabinet position would be, but this is not the same thing). The law was passed to prevent family members from receiving cabinet appointments after Robert Kennedy became his brother’s Attorney General.

But senior adviser is different. It’s not covered under the law. As president, Donald Trump should be able to surround himself with advisers whom he trusts, people who know him, people Trump wants to listen to. Hopefully, they will also be people Trump respects enough that they can dial him back when he gets the urge to tweet something ridiculous.

The same should be said about Trump’s cabinet appointments. He has the right, as president, to appoint people whom he trusts, people who share his views on the area he is appointing them to oversee. The fact that his appointments lean heavily to wealthy white guys should be immaterial. Nor should it matter that their philosophies may vary 180 degrees from their predecessors.

Trump, after all, was elected by voters who are tired of “business as usual” in Washington. If his cabinet choices promise to shake up the way things have been done, then Trump is keeping his promise to those voters.

The next four years promise to be different from any other presidential term that we can imagine. If these appointments can help keep Trump focused on the business at hand, they will be doing their job well.

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