“If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” That was President Calvin Coolidge’s advice in the 1920s to Herbert Hoover, who was then his commerce secretary.

While Coolidge’s words are generally good policy in life and politics, they will be put to the test now that Donald Trump has announced his initial Cabinet picks. With total GOP control of government, we will see if any of these nominations run into the ditch as they go through the confirmation process.

Of course, Trump is entitled to leeway when picking his own Cabinet. And if he were a casting director, three major picks — Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz — would be outstanding. They are all young and attractive enough to play roles in a soap opera or a revival of “The West Wing.” Whether they can perform in the real world is something else altogether.

Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army veteran, has been nominated to be secretary of defense. The 44-year-old decorated combat veteran has never managed a substantial organization in the private or public sector. If confirmed, he would be in charge of an $842 billion Pentagon budget.

According to a lot of social media commentary, Hegseth’s tattoos — some symbols that are popular with the far right — will likely be a topic for his confirmation hearing.

During Trump’s first term, Hegseth successfully lobbied him to pardon two Army officers who had been convicted of war crimes. He is a frequent critic of diversity and inclusion in the military and an opponent of women in combat.

Former Hawaii congresswoman Gabbard has been nominated to be director of national intelligence. Gabbard, who has been frequently and favorably covered on Russian TV, has been accused by fellow Republicans of spreading Russian propaganda and cozying up to Syria’s murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad.

She served in the military in Iraq and Kuwait. However, she has no intelligence community experience. She has never held a senior position in government. If confirmed, she would oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a budget of about $70 billion.

When you first heard that Trump had nominated now-former congressman Gaetz to be attorney general, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was a joke. Gaetz has been fighting numerous scandals and potential criminal charges on a number of fronts.

Gaetz also doesn’t have much legal experience. He practiced law in Florida for a short time after he graduated from law school in 2007. Then he was elected to the Florida legislature and later to Congress.

Gaetz resigned his congressional seat on the same day last week that Trump nominated him to be attorney general. Some of his GOP colleagues have claimed that he resigned to keep a damning House Ethics Committee report about him from being released in the coming days.

Not one of these three nominees has the education, experience and professional stature of others who have held these high offices in Republican and Democratic administrations. You have to wonder if they know enough to do these jobs.

As Tom Nichols wrote in his 2017 book “The Death of Expertise,” “The bigger problem is that we’re proud of not knowing things. Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue.”

But all three have been loyal to Trump. We will see if that’s good enough for America today.

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