Where Donald J. Trump’s critics see underqualified nominees with questionable judgment, his voters described them as mavericks recruited to shake up Washington.
To his detractors, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet looks like a rogues’ gallery of people with dubious credentials and questionable judgment.
His supporters see something different.
“It’s a masterpiece,’’ Eileen Margolis, 58, who lives in Weston, Fla., and owns a tattoo business, said of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks unveiled over the past week. “If it was a painting, it would be a Picasso.”
A “brilliant alliance,’’ is how Joanne Warwick, 60, a former Democrat from Detroit, described many of the nominees.
“It’s pretty much a star cast,’’ said Judy Kanoui of Flat Rock, N.C., a retiree and lifelong Democrat who voted for Mr. Trump for the first time this month.
Democrats, and even some Republicans, worry that these nominees for top positions in government are inexperienced, conflicted and potentially reckless. But in interviews with almost two dozen Trump voters around the country, his supporters were more likely to describe them as mavericks and reformers recruited to deliver on Mr. Trump’s promise to shake up Washington.
In Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for health and human services secretary, Mr. Trump’s supporters see a crusader searching for new solutions to chronic illnesses, not a conspiracy theorist promoting questionable and debunked ideas about vaccines and fluoride.
In Matt Gaetz, the nominee for attorney general, many Trump supporters look past the ethical investigation into allegations that he had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl and possibly violated federal sex trafficking laws, and see a provocateur who is willing to punish the Democrats who unjustly prosecuted the president-elect.
“I think it’s so crazy, and I love it,’’ Merrill McCollum, 60, of Bozeman, Mont., said of the nominees.
Ms. McCollum said she voted for Mr. Trump after becoming frustrated by bureaucracy, identity politics and the rising cost of living. She is excited by his appointments of people she sees as outsiders to Washington, D.C., a place she got to know while working there during tours in naval intelligence.
“What we’ve been doing in the past really hasn’t worked,’’ she added.
Not everyone is thrilled with every nominee. Some said the choice of Mr. Gaetz, a polarizing figure in both parties, could prove an unnecessary distraction and expressed doubts that he could be confirmed. Others thought the cabinet was not anti-establishment enough, pointing to Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who was tapped as secretary of state.
Brian Kozlowski, a 40-year-old lawyer in Orlando, said even after Mr. Trump’s resounding victory, his own expectations were relatively low that his candidate would be able to bring about lasting change in Washington. But the cabinet appointees have made him hopeful.
“It’s an actual fulfillment of a politician dispensing with the norms,” said Mr. Kozlowski.
“The No. 1 thing to me, and a lot of Trump voters, is getting rid of the swamp,’’ he added. “This is what is shocking some people — it may actually be happening.”
Among the nominees most praised in the interviews was Mr. Kennedy, who often speaks of addressing the rise in chronic health conditions.
Many health experts are alarmed by Mr. Kennedy’s unfounded claims that vaccines cause autism and by his threats to sue medical journals and fire hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health. They fear that as health secretary, he could undo generations of sound public health policy.
But voters who support Mr. Trump said they admired Mr. Kennedy’s focus on environmental toxins and his break with his famous family over his unorthodox views.
David Dollar, 71, a home improvement contractor in Durham, N.C., said he appreciated Mr. Kennedy’s push to examine how corporate agricultural and food manufacturing affects Americans’ health.
“I see the epidemic of obesity in our country,” Mr. Dollar said. “I really appreciate Mr. Kennedy’s passion for trying to change these things.”
Ms. Warwick, the former Democrat from Detroit, said, “I bet there’s a bunch of people shaking in their boots” about Mr. Kennedy’s selection. But in the end, she said, “Democrats might actually like some of his policies.”
