Shaffer and Holt Express Support for Trump’s Thorough Vetting of Potential Appointments in Newsmax Interview

Former President Donald Trump is right to pre-screen thousands of potential appointees and employees should he win back the White House, mostly because he did not do a thorough enough job in his last administration, retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.

Multiple media outlets reported The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is designed to help Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, transform the federal government overnight if he wins the 2024 election.

“He was badly fooled by the Republican establishment when he took office,” Shaffer told “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “He left Reince Priebus [then-White House chief of staff] in charge of hiring, which was a huge mistake. He went against the recommendations of a number of us.

“He did listen to some recommendations; I personally recommended he retain, and he did retain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Joe Dunford, so he got part of it right, but a lot of it wrong.

“I don’t think Trump wants to make the same mistake twice. As a matter of fact, I know he doesn’t. The idea of vetting, of actually examining both credentials and the idea of someone being through their oath of office … is something that is not only important, it’s necessary to prevent the undermining of his policies that happened during his last administration.”

Holt said it’s important that Trump not only weed out left-wing extremists, but also establishment Republicans, members of the uniparty and “the old people’s gang in the swamp.”

“This process is much more reasonable as we go through the year. They should know just exactly who they’re hiring because, let’s face it, they’ve got a lot of clean-ups to do. They’ve got a lot of purging to do.”

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