General Discussion

He's looking only for loyalty, and a particular sort of loyalty that would require the appointee to gut or destroy their agency, or at least hamper its functions, if Trump doesn't like that agency's purpose. The IRS director should be sure the IRS doesn't audit wealthy people, for example. The EPA director mustn't interfere with polluting corporations that donate to the GOP. Maybe an agency head could be competent and serious in the sense of being able to carry out Trump's demands, but if they actually try to do their job and the job entails doing what the agency was intended to do, they'll be gone. Rex Tillerson, the first SoS, is an example. He wasn't a very good manager of the agency, but he seemed to be serious about trying to do it right, and started clashing with Trump on various issues, especially relating to Russia. He was sacked after about a year. Other Trump appointees suffered similar fates when they made the mistake of taking their jobs seriously. At this point he'll be careful to appoint people with minimal qualifications and a history of blind, fanatical loyalty to be sure none of them actually try to manage their agencies properly since they wouldn't know how anyway.