Donald Trump is going to be the 45^th President of the United States of America.

That took a while to sink in. I don’t think it fully has yet, for myself, or even for many of the Americans who voted for him. It is abundantly clear that up until the results became indisputable nobody, even the Trump campaign itself, expected the real estate tycoon to pull off the political upset of a lifetime. He was testing an entirely new theory of the case; in the end he was proved right by the skin of his teeth, albeit with a little help from the electoral college. Along with just about everybody else who attempted to prognosticate on the inevitability of a second Clinton in the White House, I turned out to be dead wrong.

There are still just over two months to go until he’s sworn in and our first African-American President hands the keys to the West Wing over to the man who demanded to see his long form birth certificate. Obama had a long meeting with our president-elect just the other day, and I’m sure the Trump sitting across from him in the oval office came across as a level headed guy just looking to make the best of the political opening he’s miraculously created for himself. How deeply grounded Donald truly is to reality remains to be seen, with the most salient point in my mind being that we’re all in this together and ought to root for him now regardless of who we voted for. Yet I also must recognize my privilege and my resulting fundamental inability to understand how inconceivable that notion might seem to the countless minority groups whom Trump actively sought to dehumanize throughout the course of his campaign.

I think the best that we can all hope for is that the divisiveness of his campaign was merely a tool employed by a con-man gone out-of-control and that he now sees it in his best interest to do a halfway decent job at governing. I have no problem acknowledging that Trump’s election came about as the result of a lot of very real grievances against an increasingly globalized and elitist world leaving much of middle America behind. We see those trends throughout mature, Western democracies around the world. But we cannot move forward as a nation without a unified national consciousness, and as of now the line between the two Americas seems brighter and starker than it’s ever been in my lifetime.

I also feel it is important to note that we elected a man who lives at the top of a skyscraper with his name on it, has made huge investments in countless politicians utterly despised by conservatives such as Nancy Pelosi, and who is now in the process of filling his cabinet with the current Republican & corporate establishments that those who voted for him sought to overthrow. The irony is palpable. Not to mention that he was elected as a result of domestic grievances whereas his make it up as you go, scattershot foreign policy proposals are at best deeply unsettling and are truly terrifying to any thoughtful observer. We elected a President who has openly entertained the ideas of increasing nuclear proliferation, defunding NATO, and upending foreign policy norms in place since the end of WWII around the world. The global world order led by America and upheld by both Republicans and Democrats for over seventy years is now poised to shift in dramatic, unpredictable ways.

Acknowledging the unprecedented levels of unpredictability that will accompany this administration, I promise nothing less than to follow it as closely as possible to the best of my ability and report on whatever events occur, using only the best information available to me. I promise to view this administration not through a partisan lens but through a humanistic one, because Republicans didn’t win and Democrats didn’t win, Trump did. I promise that I will do my best to be objective and keep the best interests of our nation at heart, yet I also acknowledge that I will never be completely free of bias. Then again, neither was Cronkite when he spoke out against Vietnam or Murrow when he took on McCarthy. I had several friends, both conservative and liberal come to me following this election asking me what happened. Those who know me know that as much of an ideologue as I may be, now more than anything I simply want to keep us all on the same page. I promise that for those of you who choose to read my words, my chief goal will be to inform and nothing more. I will never be deliberately misleading, nor will I ever fail to represent both sides of an argument regardless of whatever personal opinions I may harbor.

At a time when facts have become near-impossible to come by, I promise to create an oasis of objectivity and open dialogue for anyone willing to join me. I want us to be able to live peaceably together, to once again become capable of agreeing on the nature of the problems we face but disagreeing on the solutions, to have competitive and constructive dialogue instead of spewing hateful, divisive rhetoric. I yearn for the times before much of my generation was politically aware, let alone born - times when there were parties of opposition rather than obstruction, when negotiations resulted in compromise instead of stalemates, when nobody got exactly their way, but in the end we all still got something we wanted. That is what I seek to bring to our dialogue. That is the mission I choose to embark on in light of the defeat faced by my side in this election. For those of you who care to join me, I will now attempt the monumental task of beginning to cover the Trump Administration.

Trump’s Cabinet

The New York Times, Fox News, and many other outlets have recently published speculative articles with varying shortlists of potential appointments to cabinet positions within the Trump Administration, which seems as great a place as any to begin with what seems to be a few “known-unknowns” (as our old friend Donald Rumsfeld would say) to entertain for the time being in light of the mountain of “unknown-unknowns” that lie ahead. Here is my take on some potential candidates for just some of the many cabinet appointments President-elect Trump will have to make in the coming months.

Attorney General - The top candidates for Attorney General so far appear to be former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions – in that order. At the moment they all seem to be fairly likely candidates, with Giuliani having the most relevant experience given his early advocacy for broken windows policing, as well as the controversial stop and frisk policy and his tenure as Associate Attorney General under President Reagan. Giuliani has also been a top Trump surrogate, campaigning hard for the Republican nominee long before many others got on the bandwagon.

All of the lists included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as a potential candidate, although many also noted that recent developments in the ongoing “Bridge-gate” controversy and his subsequently being replaced by Mike Pence as head of the transition team makes his appointment to any top cabinet position seem highly unlikely. Although to be fair, some might counter that the decisions of a Trump Administration will not be bound by such potential scandals. Regardless, Christie shocked many in February when he dropped out of the Republican primary and became one of the first party elites to endorse Trump. Since then his luck seems to have run out, with his top two aides from his office as Governor of New Jersey recently being convicted of numerous felonies over their involvement in closing lanes of the George Washington bridge as an act of political retribution, with many now speculating as to whether Christie will soon face charges himself.

Secretary of Education - Ben Carson seems a likely choice for Secretary of Education, also adding a bit of diversity to the cabinet - although Hoover Institute fellow William Evers who is currently overseeing the Department of Education for the transition team is also a potential candidate worth mentioning. Carson was another candidate in the Republican Primary who was an outsider to government, an avowedly creationist world renowned brain surgeon who served as the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital for almost thirty years.

Carson broke into the political dialogue in 2013 with a controversial speech criticizing President Obama’s policies at the normally apolitical National Prayer Breakfast (an event hosted by members of Congress and organized by The Fellowship Foundation, a Christian organization). With the debates over prayer in public schools as well as the context in which creationism is taught (or not taught) being important issues for many of the white evangelical voters in Trump’s coalition, Carson would be a logical choice for the position.

Secretary of the Interior - A cabinet appointment which one of my favorite professors made a point to stress the long-term importance of in one of many class discussions will undoubtedly be Secretary of the Interior. This appointee, along with the Secretary of Energy will have a large role in shaping how America utilizes our ecosystem services and to what extent we might consider tapping into oil reserves in previously untouched land. Whoever Trump appoints will have the power to oversee federal agencies such as the National Parks Service, the United States Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Land Management.

The list of potential candidates here is considerably longer and includes both elected officials as well as corporate executives. One prominent name on the list is that of former Arizona governor Jan Brewer who served for six years from 2009-2015. Brewer rose to national fame just over a year after taking office when she signed the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safer Neighborhoods Act, which granted numerous powers to state law enforcement to enforce federal immigration policies and most controversially made it a misdemeanor for any immigrant in the state not to carry registration documents required by federal law. She has also been a vocal Trump surrogate, making the talk show rounds several times but is not to be confused with the other blonde, firebrand conservative climate change skeptic being considered for the position - Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.

Fallin has been more concrete in her opposition to reducing carbon emissions, having openly refused to comply with EPA regulations intended to combat climate change and issued an executive order which prohibits Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality from creating any sort of emissions-reduction plan under the Clean Power Plan. Some might recall Fallin’s name as having also been on several reported shortlists for Trump’s VP pick early in the summer, and it is worth noting that she is ten years younger than Gov. Brewer who had to skip Trump’s election night party as she has been battling a bout of pneumonia recently.

The administration could also go in a different direction with Secretary of the Interior, with one name that got a lot of coverage as a potential candidate prior to the election being oil executive Forrest Lucas. The founder of Lucas Oil Products, Inc., he would represent a decision on behalf of President-elect Trump to bring in more government outsiders from the business world. Considering Lucas’ experience in the energy sector the implication of having him on the short list would seem to be that the department’s focus will be on oil extraction, especially considering many of our national parks contain oil reserves with immense energy potential.

One name that I’ll also mention but hope is only on the list to thank her for campaigning with him a bit is that of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I need not go into much detail about Palin’s bumpy ride through the national spotlight and her massive knowledge gaps that were exposed when she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, although it is worth noting that she shares much of the same skepticism towards climate change and propensity for drilling prevalent among those on the short list to be in charge of our nation’s public lands.

Two other non-elected official names mentioned for Interior Secretary are Harold Hamm and Robert Grady, an oil & gas executive and an investor, respectively. Hamm and Grady’s names appear on the lists for both Interior and Energy Secretary, possibly lending a glimpse of insight into a future of harmony and overlap between the two agencies.

Secretary of State – The name currently topping the shortlist for Secretary of State is that of diplomat John Bolton. Bolton has made a few friends and many enemies in Washington, serving in various capacities under several Republican administrations, most recently in a year-long recess appointment as ambassador to the U.N. under Bush Jr. Bolton is consistently a loud voice when it comes to foreign policy, having proposed a three state solution in Israel, heavily criticized the Obama Administration (in particular Secretary Clinton), and made very specific criticisms regarding the United Nations, one of many apparent reasons the Senate wouldn’t confirm him and he only served as a recess appointment under Bush.

During his confirmation hearings in 2005, Republican Senator and committee chair Richard Lugar leveled a strong critique of Bolton’s blusterous tendencies, saying that he ignores the “policy consequences” of his statements and “diplomatic speech should never be undertaken simply to score international debating points to appeal to segments of the U.S. public opinion or to validate a personal point of view. The ranking Democrat on the committee, senator Joe Biden was blunter – saying that sending Bolton to the U.N. was like sending “a bull into a China shop” and raising concerns about his “diplomatic temperament”.

Another top contender for Secretary of State appears to be senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a potential choice who would be much more well-liked, or at least tolerated, by both sides of the aisle. He has been advising Trump on foreign policy for some time now and expressed great interest in the job back in August, although he has made an effort to seem less eager since. Trump’s choice here will say a lot about the direction he intends to take his administration’s foreign policy, particularly in regards to how predictable it will be and to what degree he will care about bipartisanship back at home. Another name on the shortlist, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is one that I feel is also mostly there as a consolation for the seemingly full-time campaigning that Gingrich has done for Trump in recent months. That’s not to say Newt isn’t a heavyweight by all means and won’t likely end up somewhere in the administration, although his appointment would be by far the most establishment choice on behalf of Trump.

Defense Secretary – Depending on who you ask, there is either a fairly long or relatively short list for Secretary of Defense, with the only two names Fox listed being Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn. Both have been Trump loyalists and surrogates, with Sessions being the first member of the U.S. Senate to endorse Donald Trump in the primaries and Flynn an important military advisor who has served largely to lend legitimacy to Trump’s proposed policies. However, Flynn would require a waiver from Congress as there is normally a rule that retired officers must wait seven years before becoming the civilian leader of the military. A more likely role for him could be that of National Security Advisor, another important defense-oriented cabinet position.

The New York Times has also included the names of departing New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, Bush advisor Stephen J. Hadley, and former Arizona senator Jon Kyl in their reported shortlist for Defense Secretary. The Washington Post also mentions the name of retired Army Lt. General Joseph Kellogg and points out that Ayotte would stand out both in terms of ideology, as a neoconservative defense hawk but also identity, as one of only a few potential women in a Trump cabinet.

Secretary of Energy – The Department of Energy is responsible for overseeing U.S. energy policies in general; most notably our policies regarding the safety and handling of nuclear material. Our nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the U.S. Navy, radioactive waste disposal, and energy-related research all fall under the purview of this crucial department. Included on the shortlist here are two names also on the list for Secretary of the Interior, Harold Hamm and Robert Grady. Hamm is an oil & gas executive and Grady an investor, both of whom would take control of the department from current Secretary Ernest Moniz – a nuclear physicist plucked from Stanford by President Obama.

Also on the list for Energy Secretary is James L. Connaughton, a former energy industry lawyer turned Bush Jr. environmental advisor and current President/CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies. During his tenure with the Bush administration Connaughton was instrumental in opposing the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol (a failed precursor to the Paris agreement that made the mistake of having punitive enforcement methods for regulating emissions) and replacing it with the Asian Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Change.

Chief of Staff – I have a hard time imagining that Trump doesn’t care more than anything about personally choosing a chief of staff with both exceptional capability and loyalty. There has been a great deal of speculation as to who he might pick, with the two most frequently mentioned names being Stephen K. Bannon and Reince Priebus. The editor-in-chief of pro-Trump Breitbart News and effective leader of the alt-right wing of the Republican Party, Bannon has been described as wedding a white nationalist, anti-establishment sentiment with other neoconservative views, particularly a hardline stance on immigration. He has been a large ideological force in the Trump campaign, but not necessarily an organizational one in that way that Priebus has.

Reince Priebus deserves credit for beginning this election season as the Republican Party’s chairman and riding the roller coaster all the way through to the finish – more than we can say about his counterpart at the DNC. He would represent a concession to the establishment in a crucial way, as the Chief of Staff has an immense level of responsibility in managing the president’s administration and delegating tasks, they could practically be described as the person who will be co-running the country alongside Trump. Although at the same time he has proved an instrumental actor, showing great loyalty to Trump while bringing an immense level of professionalism, organization, and most importantly – a ground game to the billionaire's insurgent candidacy. He would seem a logical, apt choice for the position.

Fox also included Christie on their short list for Chief of Staff, although I have a hard time imagining him in the role and personally feel that potential candidates such as campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been wrongly overlooked by both liberal and conservative media alike. Conway was a veteran GOP pollster who brought a desperately needed voice of reason to the campaign, appeared on nearly every cable news show with relentless determination, and much like Priebus with his ground game it’s hard to imagine Trump winning without Conway joining the team. His daughter Ivanka’s husband and a businessman/investor, Jared Kushner was also extremely loyal to Trump throughout the campaign and was arguably equally as instrumental in his victory as Priebus and Conway were.

Kushner, only 35, seems to represents the Trump Administration’s singular tether to millennials. He coordinated the campaign’s online and social media presence, reportedly enlisting talent for a one-hundred-person social media team dubbed “Project Alamo” that fought a vigorous information war throughout the course of the campaign. He was also an advocate of firing original campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and seemed to serve as the de facto manager for a time after that, occasionally working on speechwriting as well and most notably coordinating Trump’s trip to Mexico. When President-elect Trump flew to Washington and met with President Obama for an hour and a half, Kushner was seen walking the grounds alongside current Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough. If Trump chooses Kushner it will represent a strong rebuke of any outside control over his administration, either from the alt-right or more establishment conservatives. Ultimately, Trump’s choice for Chief of Staff will serve as a bellwether for what influences will fill the ideological vacuum created by his victory and what many pundits have described as a potential “empty vessel” for outside interests seeking influence in an administration where nobody knows quite what to expect.