Throughout the entirety of his campaign and eventual election, President Donald Trump has been surrounded by countless controversies and been subject to critique by the media. Most recently, the critiques center around Trump’s cabinet choices because their relationship with him and his brand present a serious conflict of interest. Although many suggest that Trump should follow President Barack Obama’s model of objectivity when choosing his cabinet members, they do not realize that Obama was not very impartial with his cabinet picks either.

Much of the controversy over Trump’s cabinet is related to his choice for Secretary of the Treasury — Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman-Sachs trader and hedge fund manager who helped raise funds for the Trump campaign. Mnuchin presents the clearest conflict of interest because of his past connection to Trump.

A similar spotlight of scrutiny has been shone on Trump’s picks for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Secretary of Energy and Former — former GOP presidential candidate, Ben Carson, and former Texas governor Rick Perry — because many believe they will have a clear bias when it comes to advising the President.

Elaine Chao, Trump’s pick for Transportation Secretary and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has also come under fire recently, after it was discovered that her family runs a global shipping company, according to the LA Times.

Yet, the most controversial secretary pick is Scott Pruitt, who was chosen to be the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator; however, the fact that he has ties to the fossil fuel industry has been harped on by numerous people and the media as being a clear bias.

The fact that there is already so much controversy surrounding Trump makes everyone, especially the media, hyper aware of all the choices he makes. Yet we fail to recall that Obama had similar conflicts of interest as he chose his cabinet members, which didn’t garner nearly as much backlash.

Former Google lobbyist, Andrew McLaughlin, was hired by Obama to work in the technology policy office at the White House.  While there, he and other Google lobbyists worked to approve policies that would benefit Google, according to a 2010 Washington Examiner article.

In addition to that, Obama hired lobbyist Chris Jennings, who represented drug manufactures to help establish Obamacare. Obama’s choice for EPA Secretary when he was first elected was Lisa Jackson, who told corporate lobbyists that it could benefit EPA policies to use her private email account.

The main point, however, is that a new president typically fills their cabinet with people that best suit their views and goals even if there is a conflict of interest involved.  Trump choosing people that he knows will make policy decisions in compliance with his ideology is, therefore, not surprising. He is simply doing what most other presidents have done before him.  

Like it or not, Trump is the president. He is liable to make choices that reflect the promises he made while campaigning. For this reason, I don’t think that Trump’s secretary picks are all that shocking or necessarily something people should worry about just yet.