March 13, 2026 11:53 AM UTC

Yet Another Colorado Clown Failed Upward By Trump

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Westword’s Hannah Metzger reports, the same patronage process that rewarded such otherwise incompetent Colorado Republicans as former state GOP chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams and ex-Rep. “Sleepy” Justin Everett with high-ranking positions in Donald Trump’s administration has promoted another individual with no apparent qualifications to a job that sounds awfully important:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named Denver-area eye doctor Brian Joondeph to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee on Monday, March 9. As a member of the influential panel, the ophthalmologist will advise the EPA on federal air quality regulations and the health impacts of air pollution.

Except, Joondeph has no discernible background in air pollution science. As reported by the New York Times, Joondeph “has never published a peer-reviewed paper dealing with air pollution,” despite being appointed as the committee’s designated physician. Before Joondeph took the physician seat, for the past fifty years, it had been “filled by pulmonologists, cardiologists and others who have researched how exposure to air pollution increases the risk of asthma, heart and lung diseases, cancer and other ailments,” the NYT article reads…

But in an America where loyalty to Donald Trump is the only skill required to join the “best and brightest,” Brian Joondeph is eminently qualified:

In addition to being an eye doctor, Joondeph is a columnist for the conservative publications American Thinker and Rasmussen Reports. He has written extensively in support of Trump’s policies, ranging from immigration enforcement to military action in Venezuela, and even his claim that Tylenol is bad for pregnant women.

You can just imagine the thought process that led to this Trump loyalist eye doctor’s appointment to the EPA’s air pollution board. He’s an eye doctor, so of course he wants people to see clean air! It sounds ridiculous, but we’ll bet money someone in a decision-making capacity along the way to Joondeph’s appointment said these exact words.

And then everyone around the table laughed, because they all knew this wasn’t about anybody’s stinking qualifications.