Bill O’Reilly Says Trump’s Nominees Are Meant to Be His ‘Eyes and Ears’: ‘Trump Is Going To Run Everything’

Bill O’Reilly argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations he’s announced so far are part of a “top down” strategy where Trump will “run everything” through loyal supporters.

Some of Trump’s picks have sparked  backlash on both sides of the political aisle, including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense have sparked  backlash on both sides of the political aisle.

O’Reilly joined NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday evening and defended Trump’s nominations as part of a “centralized” strategy in which Trump will be more heavily involved in areas other presidents wouldn’t be.

He pointed to Hegseth specifically as “very loyal” to Trump and said the Fox News host will serve as a “watchdog” for the Pentagon after Trump felt “burned” by generals in his first term.

“Hegseth is going to watch the generals because Trump got so burned by that and he’s so angry that he wants a watchdog play with Pete Hegseth, okay? And he’s a very loyal guy to Trump,” O’Reilly said.

He described it as a “top down” strategy and Trump is “going to run everything.”

“So you have to understand it’s a top down on Trump. Trump is going to run everything, and he wants eyes and ears in all of these areas reporting back to him. That’s how this country is going to be run,” he said.

The author and former Fox News host went on to compare this governing style to late President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s. O’Reilly summed it up as Trump feeling “burned” by D.C. during his first term and now he wants those who “burned” him to stay far away from his administration, sticking instead to those faithful to him and his MAGA agenda. This strategy, according to O’Reilly, is nothing “new.”

O’Reilly argued:

A lot of people don’t like this governing style, that’s for sure, and the press is going wild already because they hate Trump. But Trump is going to run this administration the way he wants to. Franklin Delano Roosevelt did the same thing. He had his cadre all over the federal government watching people that might subvert what he wanted done. FDR was a very centralized president, and he didn’t have a real aggressive media back then, but those were the depression years and the World War II years — You did it his way or you were out. He wouldn’t even talk to Harry Truman, his vice president, because he didn’t trust Truman, alright? So he isolated Truman totally, alright? That was FDR so this isn’t new. It’s been done. Richard Nixon was paranoid, really paranoid, and he had his guys, Ehrlichman and Haldeman, watch every single thing that happened in the federal government, and I think you know that if you studied Watergate. So Trump is going to run it in a in a fashion that he got burned the first time and those who burned him are not going to reappear in any way, shape or form.

Watch above via NewsNation.