The impending return of Donald Trump to the White House with an almost lily-white team of cabinet appointees follows a clear victory that represents one of the greatest political comebacks in history. The twice-impeached Trump is the first convicted felon to become president.

Trump is certainly a phenomenon. However, he is more like the wicked witch who has picked seven political dwarfs than like Snow White. He has been able to convince a multiracial working class and struggling middle-class to vote against their own interests through alchemic appeals to improving their economic condition by launching  tariff wars and deporting most of the 13-million illegal immigrants that are in the US.

During his first tenure Trump enacted $1.5-trillion of tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy. America’s misogyny must also be probed, having rejected two flawless campaigns by the entitled Hillary Clinton and the joyful Kamala Harris.

The vengeful Trump has recently made cabinet appointments that suggest he has learnt nothing from his first presidency. He hired capable ministers in his first term, but then fell out with many of them. This time he is picking adherents of his right-wing Make America Great Again (MAGA) gospel, shamelessly prioritising loyalty over competence. We can expect more scandals, sackings and stepping downs.

There has already been an early casualty: Trump’s controversial pick for attorney-general, Matt Gaetz, a flawed congressman who survived charges of child-trafficking before a recent congressional investigation into alleged sexual misconduct and drug use. Gaetz had threatened to defund the justice department and the FBI. He recently stepped down from consideration amid much unease in the Senate.    

Defence secretary nominee Peter Hegseth is singularly unqualified to lead the 3-million-strong, $2-trillion a year department. A presenter on the right-wing Fox News, Hegseth has opposed American spending in Ukraine and described Nato as “totally corrupted”. He wears prominent tattoos associated with Islamophobic crusading white Christian neonazis, and has threatened to fire woke generals who promote diversity in the military. His second wife divorced him after he impregnated a fellow Fox news producer and he settled a rape allegation through a nondisclosure financial payment.  

Robert F Kennedy Jr is the scion of the legendary Democratic family, chosen by Trump to head the department of health & human services with an annual budget of $1.7-trillion. Kennedy has argued that no vaccine is safe and effective. He was a heroin-snorting addict and self-confessed sex addict who accused his family of being victims of “hypnosis”. Kennedy had an adulterous affair with journalist Olivia Nuzzi, and three other women have since claimed sexual affairs with him.

Trump’s nominee for national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, has often been portrayed as a Putin-supporting Russian intelligence asset and has reportedly been involved with a secretive Hare Krishna-linked sect renowned for its Islamophobia and homophobia.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, used X to spread disinformation for Trump. An émigré who spent his formative years in the militaristic milieu of apartheid SA, Musk appears to have embraced Trump’s white supremacy. He has been tasked to slash an implausible $2-trillion in government spending.

Trump’s secretary of state nominee, Hispanic senator Marco Rubio, has experience but lacks substance and is a sycophantic Trump loyalist. An anti-China hawk, he has backed calls for reducing US spending in Ukraine, though he previously led senatorial efforts to stall any American withdrawal from Nato.

National security adviser nominee Mike Waltz was a former Green Beret and former US Congressman. A Trump loyalist, he has backed reducing spending on Ukraine and the Middle East to counter China more effectively. Critical of Nato, he however has solid experience in this field.

Maga lunatics are thus about to take over the American asylum. This will be no fairy tale with a happy ending.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and do not represent the official stance or policies of the University of Pretoria.