Exactly eight years ago this week, there were reports of concerns among Voice of America officials that Donald Trump — in his first appearance as president-elect — might try to politicize the network’s coverage. Several years later, federal investigators determined that Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who helped oversee VOA, had abused the powers of his office.

It’s also worth noting that Pack faced complaints from more than 30 whistleblowers during his tenure.

With that in mind, Trump has been elected president again, and he has a new person in mind for the network. NBC News reported:

The NBC News report added: “VOA’s stated mission is not to promote America’s achievements; Rather, the website says it is “committed to providing comprehensive news coverage and telling the truth to audiences.”

Truth, of course, has not been the Arizona Republican’s strong suit, at least not in recent years: Lake is perhaps best known as a prominent GOP election denier and conspiracy theorist who opposed both Trump’s defeat in 2020 and her own defeat in the 2020 gubernatorial election 2022. (She also lost a U.S. Senate race last month.)

Furthermore, it is not entirely reassuring that Lake, a former local broadcaster, appears destined to help run a journalistic station despite her repeated condemnation of journalists whom she calls “monsters.”

But if we step back, there’s also a larger pattern to consider: The president-elect is sure to select many failed candidates for his new administration.

Roll Call recently published an interesting article that said, “For someone who has made winning an important part of his personal, professional and political brand, Donald Trump will be counting on a large crop of losers in his second term.” According to Roll Call’s tally, at least 17 of the president-elect’s personnel decisions failed in his bid for elected office.

After the report was released, Trump appointed former Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler – both Georgia Republicans who had lost recent elections – to prominent positions in the incoming administration. In fact, three Republicans lost Senate elections in Georgia in 2020 — Perdue, Loeffler and former Rep. Doug Collins — and now all three of them were recruited for jobs in the Trump administration.

This week, the president-elect also announced plans to appoint former Republican Rep. Dan Bishop to a key federal post after his failed race for attorney general in North Carolina, which was soon followed by the Lake News.

The New York Times published an analysis of Trump’s motivations, saying: “It’s a surprising development for a political figure who has long used the word ‘loser’ as an insult and sought to overturn the 2020 election rather than to admit it.” lost it. But some of these Republicans lost their races in part because of their support for Trump — meaning that defeat in Washington can lead to victory in politics when loyalty to Trump is the coin of the empire.”

All of this suggests that the so-called “Team of Losers” list may be getting longer.