Jeff Whitten

Local columnist

Dear President-Elect Trump: I’ve got some more unsolicited advice for you this week as you continue to prepare for your second term as the BMIC (that’s Big Man In Charge).

First, dump Matt Gaetz.

The guy looks like Donny Osmond’s evil twin and, if even half the news reports are true, acts like it. If you won’t do that, at least convince the House to release the results of its investigation into his alleged, er, escapades.

Second, this Pete Hegseth guy you want as Secretary of Defense is iffy. I thank him for his service, but as an Army veteran myself there’s something about those who make a career out of their time in the military by trading on it – in his case becoming a flag-waving Monday morning quarterback and Fox News talking head -- that rubs me the wrong way. Besides, this guy also might have some character issues.

Third, can we make lists of people we don’t like and send them to you for deportation as more deserving candidates than those born elsewhere who come here in search of a better life and often do jobs us Americans no longer do.

I have some folks in mind – the publishers of those websites and social media pages that post mugshots, for example. Here are people who pretend to be doing a public service but mostly profit off kicking people when they’re already down.

I’d also suggest deporting the lowlifes who phone scam old ladies by pretending to be someone’s grandson who got in a wreck or arrested or something equally reprehensible. Or the swindlers who steal people’s retirement savings.

And how about the profiteers who jack up prices during or after disasters?

Or set up fake universities and then have to be taken to court to refund tuition payments, oh, wait, never mind. Or traffic in conspiracy theories about school shootings? Or spread hate and misinformation online?

What about racists, regardless of their color? Throw them in with the rapists, killers, muggers and embezzlers and so on. And by all means, deport the criminals here illegally. Send th back to where they came from. Send our homegrown criminals to whichever country will take them in.

It would make America a better place, if you ask me.

Not that you did, of course, but since you’re appointing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up a Department of Government Efficiency, I figure it’s okay to throw a few suggestions for a better government your way.

Except that after some thought, I’ve only got one real suggestion and it’s not even for you. It’s for us citizens.

There’s an old saying Americans tend to get the government we deserve, so I suspect at the end of the day better government starts with us, really. I look forward to the day we figure that out.

Now retired, Jeff Whitten is a former editor of the Bryan County News.