He appears to be picking people from one of three lists:
Republicans with media experience (aka people he knows from TV or social media).
Whoever wrote the relevant section of Project 2025.
People accused of being Russian assets (mostly just Tulsi Gabbard at this point, but there's a reason she's going to be in charge of foreign intelligence and it's not for our benefit).
You're also missing a major part, donorship. These picks aren't incompetence as it looks at first glance. They're deliberately picked for regulatory capture. They're going to burn it down from three inside.
Look at Dr. Oz. He got picked because of his wife's family, the Asplundhs. They're going to fuck up healthcare far worse than you expect.
In case people forgot, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho was a porn superstar and, relevantly, five-time Ultimate Smackdown wrestling champion.
Since literally everything in the government seems to be getting dismantled, what companies are going to pick up the pieces for these sectors? If we are drowning in a sinking ship we can at least invest in a life boat to buy eggs with and fight the impending inflation. The goal seems to shift trillions from government funding to private sectors and deregulate to let the friends of Trump get even wealthier.
Solar is and isn't going to be a future successful asset, because Trump will do everything to devalue it while the rest of the world moves right on to adopting it.
Gold is at an ATH, Bitcoin is at an ATH, oil is a gamble because while Conservatives may push it, the move for renewables is against it.
Metals and materials for computer chips are still worthwhile investments and Ai is shaky unless it pulls a few more parlor tricks.
The only real things I can find that are corrupt and exempt enough from litigation or a recession...
The President and Legislature are elected at the federal level. All the various major executive branch figures below that are appointed by the President, and at best require the Senate to approve them. Most aren't as ridiculous in their picks as Trump, but he's a narcissistic megalomaniacal buffoon so he has to ensure to himself that's he's surrounded with people who are well known and popular (hence why he seems to be mostly picking based on media experience rather than anything pertinent, save a couple of Project 2025 authors and Tulsi Gabbard) but that he can see himself as above and will stroke his ego by affirming that.
This position of the president's cabinet, so the only requirement is to be appointed by the president. We elected a scummy mafia-adjacent businessman, and he's appointing the other mafia-adjacent scum he owes favors to.
There is Senate confirmation. But there is talk of Trump pressuring the Senate to adjourn so his nominations can be rammed through as "recess appointments". Then we'd really be in rubber stamp legislature autocracy territory
Exactly, predators protecting predators. I wish Stone Cold would have done his stunner a bit stiff and maybe we could have avoided this timeline altogether.
Meh, I liked Devos' Title IX policy changes. Even if over half of it was "some guy sued a college over due process and the college lost, let's bake the decision into formal policy" and most of the rest was just firmly establishing who does what and obvious basic fairness things.
That's basically the only thing Devos did that I liked, but it's slightly better than nothing!