The author of a book that chronicles life in the Rust Belt and the everyday struggles of poor white communities said Friday that many of the people who voted for Donald Trump wouldn’t be paying much attention to his Cabinet selections.
“I don’t think people are going to be concerned about this back home,” said J.D. Vance, who wrote “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir of his childhood in a poor town in rural Ohio.
Where he’s from, Vance said, “People don’t pay that much attention to the day-to-day politics.”
“I think what Trump will be judged on by the folks that voted for him … is whether things start to get a little bit better over the next few years. And ultimately that doesn’t depend on whether Jeff Sessions is the attorney general,” he said, referring to the President-elect’s decision that the senator from Alabama should lead the Justice Department.
Trump announced his nominations Friday for top national security posts, proposing Sessions as attorney general, US Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas as CIA director and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser.
Vance noted that Trump had “rewarded the loyalists” with his appointments so far.
“But that list is getting shorter by the day,” Vance said.
“Unless he wants to appoint (his daughter) Ivanka as secretary of defense, he’s got to start expanding beyond the circle,” he added.