By Michael Foster-Sanders/campus editor

President Donald Trump admitted at a rally Oct. 19 that the person he nominated to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, might not have been qualified.

Why is this becoming a recurring theme with Trump? 

He promised to hire the best people, but his nominees are underqualified or total mismatches for positions that affect millions of Americans.

Let’s face the stone-cold truth: Our president loves to surround himself with people that make him feel good.

That is, until they get on his bad side. Then the belittlement comes, and he throws them under the bus.

Reality TV star Omarosa Manigault Newman should never have been considered for a position as a political aide in the Oval Office, but she got the job because she praised Trump.

Brett Kavanaugh has questionable character traits, allegations of committing sexual assaults, political bias and a shaky temperament, and this is who our president got to sit on the Supreme Court?

We also have Scott Pruitt, who Trump hired to lead the Environmental Protection Agency despite being a devout climate change denier. He was forced to leave his job this summer after getting involved in a series of ethics scandals.

When former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were in office, they went out of their way to find the most qualified people for these positions.

Take the Secretary of Education position for example. Both Obama and Bush nominated former superintendents of large public school districts for the Cabinet position while Trump nominated DeVos, whose only experience with education comes from being the founder of the Great Lakes Education Project, a charter advocacy organization. 

Our president must realize that  the American people need him to nominate qualified candidates for these positions because this is not one of his television shows where he can do what he wants without repercussions.

This time, our country’s future is at stake.