U.S. President Donald Trump looks at U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as he participates in a roundtable on antifa, an anti-fascist movement he designated a domestic "terrorist organization" via executive order on September 22, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
During his first presidency, Donald Trump bitterly clashed with a long list of traditional conservatives who media figures often described as "the adults in the room" — including a secretary of state (Rex Tillerson), a U.S. attorney general (Jeff Sessions), a secretary of defense (Jim Mattis), a White House chief of staff (Gen. John F. Kelly), and a national security director (John Bolton). Trump's third White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, even ended up endorsing presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
But Trump's second administration, dominated by loyalists, is much more MAGA across the board. And according to Never Trump conservative Tom Nichols, those "adults in the room" from the first Trump Administration are nowhere to be found this time
In an article published by The Atlantic on November 3, Nichols compares the second Trump Administration to a group of unhinged "bullies and mean girls."
"The United States is now a nation run by public servants who behave no better than internet trolls, deflecting criticism with crassness and obscenity," Nichols laments. "The White House press secretary answers a question from a member of the free press — a serious question about who planned a meeting between the American and Russian presidents — by saying, 'Your mom did.' The secretary of defense cancels DEI and other policies by saying, 'We are done with that s——.' The vice president calls an interlocutor on social media a 'dips——.'"
Nichols continues, "The president of the United States himself, during mass protests against his policies, responds by posting an AI-generated video of himself flying a jet fighter over his fellow citizens and dumping feces on their heads. These are not the actions of mature adults. They are examples of crude people displaying their incompetence as they flail about in jobs — including the presidency — for which they are not qualified."
In Trump's second administration, Nichols argues, competence is irrelevant — all that matters is "loyalty" to Trump.
"When the U.S. military kills people at sea and (Vice President JD) Vance, responding to a charge that such actions might be war crimes, responds, 'I don’t give a s– what you call it,' the goal is not just to boost Vance's hairy-chest cred — it's also to grind others down into accepting the idea of extrajudicial executions," Nichols warns. "The collapse of a superpower into a regime of bullies and mean girls and comic-book guys explains much about why American democracy is on the ropes, reeling from the attacks of people who, in a better time, would never have been allowed near the government of the United States."
Tom Nichols full article for The Atlantic is available at this link.