I want to echo Jonah, Yuval, and Hugh Hewitt, all of whom are touting Tevi Troy for HHS secretary. Tevi’s a friend of mine and a friend and respected colleague to many others as well. The high regard in which Tevi is held helps explain his unanimous confirmation as deputy HHS secretary in 2007. As number two at HHS, Tevi was chief operating officer of the largest civilian department in the government, with over 67,000 employees. Have you heard of anything going wrong at HHS while Troy was steering the ship? I didn’t think so.
(Now everyone look away from this paragraph while I speak directly to the White House.) Yes, Jonah first floated Tevi’s name, but Troy has never been a NeverTrumper. He didn’t sign the NeverTrump statements, and that’s just not where he’s been at. As Hugh Hewitt put it, “Tevi Troy is maybe the perfect Trump cabinet member, because he’s self-effacing, and very loyal, and very effective.”
As HHS secretary, Troy would be working closely with Congress. Fortunately he has plenty of experience and connections on the Hill, where he was policy director for Senator John Ashcroft and domestic policy director for the House Policy Committee, chaired by Chris Cox. And as a former deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, Troy has deep knowledge of the White House as well.
Troy is a full-spectrum conservative who’s been a warrior for free-market health care reform for years. He’s worked for conservatives like Ashcroft, Chris Cox, and Elaine Chao (when she was at the Department of Labor). And that’s not to mention Troy’s writing in places like National Review and Commentary and The Wall Street Journal.
How does someone with impeccable conservative credentials gain such respect from across the aisle? Well, part of the answer is that Troy is a smart-as-a-whip straight-shooter with ramrod integrity, while also being an all-around nice guy. But it’s also that Troy’s books about the presidency are fair, and fascinating to readers of all stripes. His latest work, Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office, couldn’t be better preparation for the job.
In sum: Tevi Troy for secretary of HHS.
— Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He can be reached at comments.kurtz@nationalreview.com