Leave it to Donald Trump to weigh picking Andrew McKenna, a campaign donor who has no Pentagon experience whatsoever, as his nominee to run the United States Air Force.
This is nothing new. In Trump's America, payments, profits, and politics always come before public safety.
But McKenna is far worse than just any other coin-operated cabinet nomination. He is someone who always seems to put personal enrichment over patriotism.
Through his investment firm, McKenna helped the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf Tour monitor and track 9/11 victims’ families who protested the tour due to whose money was behind it.
How patriotic!
In fact, McKenna’s self-serving nature is so out of line that his ability to represent the U.S. Air Force has already been called into question for years now.
In 2022, the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about the Air Force and honor Air Force veterans, even terminated him from a flight program it runs because it had “significant doubts” about his ability to “best represent the USAF.”
Why? Because he seemed to believe the rules apply to thee but not to he.
“You invited a non-approved pilot to join the arrival formation into Oshkosh with the F35 demonstration team,” the foundation wrote. "This is a plain violation of the LOA that authorizes the program. This placed the program at significant risk."
If Trump cares so much about law and order, then why did he nominate a lawbreaker to the nation’s highest Air Force post?
Enough is enough. While it's unfortunately common practice to reward major campaign donors, at an absolute minimum, national security should always transcend political concerns. This is a new low even for Trump.
Hopefully, Trump ultimately decides against this move — and if he doesn't, the Senate fights McKenna’s nomination tooth and nail and chooses to not confirm him. We all deserve better than this.