'Bootlickers' and cranks top 'collection of hacks and barbarians' in Trump’s White House

President Donald Trump reacts during a cabinet meeting at the White House in 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Donald Trump has put together the worst cabinet in U.S. history, according to an opinion piece by Paul Waldman, a former associate director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and author.

Writing for Public Notice, Waldman took an unsparing look at the administration. “Peruse the headlines on a given day and you’ll see them in action, proudly bringing catastrophe wherever they go,” he wrote.

In Waldman’s opinion, the pre-Trump Cabinet that won the “worst” honors was that of Warren G. Harding. That administration was grappling with the Teapot Dome scandal over oil rights, and a couple of Cabinet members went to prison for accepting bribes.

But “even when no one winds up behind bars, every Cabinet has a dud or two,” Waldman concedes. He even allows that Trump’s first Cabinet seems like a model of wisdom and competence compared to the second group.

Trump, Waldman contends, “knew exactly what he wanted and who could give it to him,” when selecting his second Cabinet lineup. That resulted in a series of bad choices.

“The person guaranteed to do maximal harm to the interests of the country and the purposes for which their department exists," according to Waldman. "In short, we have never seen quite the collection of clowns, cranks, and crooks that Trump has assembled.”

The 15 departments of the Cabinet are led by Senate-confirmed secretaries. But the selections to lead these silos should minimally “require considerable administrative experience and deep knowledge of the issues the department confronts," Walden argues. Not so in Trump's second administration.

A few of his observations:

1. New Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is “comically unqualified, intensely partisan and unflaggingly devoted to whatever ridiculous thing bubbled out of Donald Trump’s mouth five minutes ago."
2. Pete Hegseth, the former weekend cohost of “Fox & Friends” has “proven himself to be a model of incompetence; the word insiders use again and again to describe DOD under his leadership is 'chaos.'"
3. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “so far outside the norm that he can’t be compared to any previous secretary of Health and Human Services, or any Cabinet member at all."
4. Pam Bondi, the second choice for the position after Matt Gaetz, “has managed in one short year to utterly corrupt and degrade the Department of Justice,” Waldman writes. Under her watch, Waldman claims, thousands of experienced lawyers have quit.

“But if you tried to point to a single exemplary member of the cabinet, could you find one?” Waldman asks.

The high hopes for Secretary of State Marco Rubio have vanished, Waldman claims. He’s now “an enthusiastic implementer of Trump’s vision to turn America into a plundering far-right rogue state.”

There is also an “incredible collection of hacks and barbarians outside and below the Cabinet,” Waldman says. Advisor Stephen Miller, FCC chair Brendan Carr, DHS head Tom Holman and FBI head Kash Patel are among them, he writes.

The lone bright spot appears to be Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, “a rarity in Trump’s Cabinet in that he understands the government quite well and performs his job with skill.” But his mission is to “destroy the federal government’s capacity to solve problems or serve the public.”

When the Trump presidency finally ends, most will find a cozy off-ramp in corporate or political consultancies.

“A few of them will probably even run for president,” Waldman concludes. “As though what they’ve already done to the country isn’t enough.”

From Your Site Articles