Is Donald Trump’s Cabinet a Cause for Concern?

On this week’s episode of The E.R., David Rothkopf, Kori Schake, the New York Times’s David Sanger, and Al Arabiya’s Hisham Melhem discuss the latest appointments to President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet, and debate who’s in line for the top foreign policy jobs, including secretary of state and secretary of defense.

Last week, Trump and his transition team — headed up by Vice President-elect Mike Pence — named Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn as national security advisor and Rep. Mike Pompeo as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. From Lt. Gen. Flynn’s remarks about fearing Muslims, to Rep. Pompeo’s desire to bring back the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques (i.e. waterboarding), what kind of advice will Trump receive from his top advisors? What does this mean for our relationships with our allies?

The panel then looks at the overarching picture of Trump’s Cabinet picks: it’s not just the temperament and lack of understanding of foreign policy that should alarm the public, it’s the core beliefs and character of these men that citizens should fear the most.

Hisham Melhem is a columnist and analyst for Al Arabiya News Channel in Washington, D.C. He is also a correspondent for the Lebanese daily Annahar. Follow him on Twitter at: @hisham_melhem.

David Sanger is the national security correspondent for the New York Times and author of Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. Follow him on Twitter at: @SangerNYT.

Kori Schake is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she focuses on military history, and a former foreign-policy advisor to Sen. John McCain. Follow her on Twitter at: @KoriSchake.

David Rothkopf is the CEO and editor of the FP Group. Follow him on Twitter at: @djrothkopf.

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