Bridge’s latest oppo research dump includes information on Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, RFK Jr., Russell Vought, and others
Donald Trump wasted no time announcing he would appoint controversial and unqualified ideological extremists to the most important perches of the federal government. The extremists nominated to help run the Trump Administration are out of touch with real Americans and support far-right policies to restrict rights and health care access because they don’t care about the needs of real, working people.
Trump is bringing the swamp back to Washington with wholly unqualified people who don’t know how to do their jobs and whose main directive is to serve him – not the American people. Their contemptible records of fleecing investors, workers, and donors are disqualifying, as is the fact that they have their sights now set on American taxpayers as the latest victims of their corruption and fraud.
In the immediate aftermath of the November 2024 election, American Bridge 21st Century, the largest Democratic opposition research firm in the country, announced the launch of MAGAFiles, an open-source project using Bridge’s vast and effective opposition research apparatus to ensure that no dangerous ideologues hand-picked by Trump escape scrutiny.
The MAGAFiles project has three main pillars: deep vetting of Trump’s nominees and appointees to government positions, real-time scrutiny of the Trump Administration’s use of government power, and holding Trump’s allies accountable — especially those running for office up and down the ballot.
Today, American Bridge 21st Century dropped a massive trove of new research and message guidance to MAGAFiles.
The new research focuses on Trump’s collection of dangerous and unqualified people who will have tremendous influence in the Trump administration and will help carry out a destructive, anti-democratic agenda.
Our research digs up the records of key MAGA loyalists tapped to fill out the Trump Administration. Trump only selected unqualified loyalists who he thinks deserve to be rewarded, not experts who know how to best serve and improve life for the American people. Their allegiance is to Trump and extreme far-right ideologies, not their country. Their records of corruption, fraud, and deception show they’ll always put their self-interests ahead of the needs of Americans.
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They don’t care about everyday people:
- Russell Vought, as director of the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration, oversaw budgets that proposed significant cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The Trump FY 2021 budget, which Vought spearheaded, sought to reduce Medicare spending by $500 billion over ten years and proposed approximately $79 billion in cuts to Social Security and disability benefits. Vought, Trump’s nominee to once again lead OMB, has continued to advocate for Medicare and Medicaid “reform” into 2023, prioritizing cuts to the “bureaucracy” and what he termed the “benefit hammock” of the social safety net.
- Frank Bisignano, Trump’s nominee to be commissioner of the Social Security Administration, made tens of millions of dollars while laying off thousands of employees. In 2018, Bisignano earned over 2,000 times more than his median employee at First Data. More recently, Bisignano has spent the past two years firing thousands of workers at Fiserv where he serves as CEO.
- Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to be secretary of defense, supported privatizing Veterans Affairs health care and veterans’ pensions. He supported an act that would negatively impact 22 million veterans and would make one-fifth of future veterans ineligible for VA care.
- Michael Faulkender, the nominee to be deputy secretary of the treasury, supported making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, which would lead to a huge tax break for the super-rich while costing American families over $4 trillion dollars.
- Billy Long, Trump’s nominee to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, co-sponsored bills that would give a massive tax cut to the rich and increase the burden on working Americans, including replacing income tax with a 23% federal sales tax.
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They’re unqualified extremists:
- Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to direct the FBI, is best known for appearing on Qanon-related podcasts, pushing false conspiracy theories, and publishing a list of perceived enemies of Trump and the MAGA movement.
- Todd Blanche, nominated to be Deputy Attorney General, has been sued by former clients for forging signatures and overbilling. His nomination is one that makes sense if Trump intends to turn the Justice Department into his personal law firm.
- Janette Nesheiwat, nominated for Surgeon General, lacked the career experience in medicine, public health, and policymaking typical of a qualified appointee for the position. Her medical career was largely limited to her tenure at a for-profit urgent care franchise. She also lacks experience in research institutions, hospitals, or medical schools.
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They’re far-right wing extremists:
- Dan Bishop, Lee Zeldin, and several other nominees actively opposed the certification of the 2020 election results, with Zeldin and Billy Long taking additional steps by joining legal challenges that sought Supreme Court intervention to overturn the outcome.
- The effort to challenge the results extended to legal and administrative channels, with D. John Sauer filing a lawsuit in Missouri, while Jeffrey Clark – with support from Russell Vought – faced charges in Georgia for his attempts to overturn results there.
- Doug Collins, Harmeet Dhillon, and Pam Bondi, played key roles in promoting election fraud claims, with Navarro specifically pushing for Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes.
- Dan Bishop, Pete Hegseth, Russell Vought, and Lee Zeldin have made their anti-abortion policies and beliefs a core of their careers, pushing bans without exception, policies that would ban IVF, and calling for a special anti-abortion presidential assistant.
- Pam Bondi, D. John Sauer, and Russell Vought have all pushed legal and legislative action against the right to choose, including tracking women’s periods, banning abortion medications, and requiring 24-hour waiting periods that make abortions impossible to get for many Americans.
- Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice for Director of National Intelligence is known for being sympathetic to dictators and U.S. adversaries like Russia and Syria.
- RFK Jr.: Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is infamous for his anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and exacerbating a measles outbreak that killed more than 80 people in Samoa, mostly small children. RFK Jr. is also an anti-abortion extremist who supported a 15-week national ban and dismissed reproductive rights as “non-existential.”
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They’re corrupt:
- Pam Bondi allegedly used her position as Florida Attorney General to benefit herself and her political allies. She fired two investigators who were building a case against a company that contributed to her 2010 campaign, refused to investigate Trump University on fraud charges after the Trump Family Foundation donated $25,000 to her affiliated PAC, and convinced then-Governor Rick Scott to move a state execution because it conflicted with her campaign event.
- Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to be director of the FBI, allegedly provided financial and career support to witnesses who made false claims of government weaponization against Trump through his non-profit, “Fight With Kash.”
- Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Commerce, and his firm Cantor Fitzgerald have been repeatedly charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misleading investors, violating anti-fraud laws, and failing to identify large traders. The firm also faced fines for bad record-keeping of off-channel communications. Lutnick’s Cantor Las Vegas sportsbook faced fines after a vice president accepted unlawful wagers. Insiders described Lutnick as “the most hated guy on Wall Street” for “pulling money from people.” Lutnick reportedly planned to use his political clout to defuse regulatory threats facing Tether, a cryptocurrency firm under investigation for possible violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. As co-chair of Trump’s transition team, Lutnick vetted candidates for top jobs that would involve regulating Tether.
- Steve Feinberg, the nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense, lobbied Trump in 2017 to enact a policy change in Afghanistan that would have directly benefited one of his military contracting companies. His company, Cerberus, also had a controlling interest in Steward Health Care, which was the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging shady and unethical business practices. Cerberus made $800 million when it sold Steward to the hospitals’ physicians, who borrowed heavily to complete the deal and were saddled with debt.
- Billy Long, nominated to head the IRS, purchased stock in a company that became the subject of an ethics investigation and the criminal conviction of Rep. Chris Collins.
- Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s choice for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, is CEO of the Center for American Liberty, a non-profit, and head of Dhillon Law Group, the non-profit’s largest contractor, both of which make for huge conflicts of interest
- Mike Huckabee, the pick for Ambassador to Israel, received $50,000 to visit Qatar, and praised the country in a tweet without disclosing the payment As governor of Arkansas, he received 14 ethics complaints, including destroying hard drives.
“The sycophants who Donald Trump thinks can help him raid Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires like himself are not going to get through this nomination process without the world knowing exactly who they are. These nominees are dangerous individuals in an incoming administration filled with ideological extremists,” said American Bridge 21st Century president Pat Dennis. “We’re not letting these self-serving lackeys fly under the radar while Trump tries to distract Americans by posting false claims about crime on social media or touting his economy-wrecking plans to wage massive tariffs against our trade partners. We will continue updating our MAGAFiles research to make sure Americans are constantly reminded about the extremist actions taken by the Trump Administration.”
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Published: Jan 13, 2025