U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attend a cabinet meeting at the White House (Reuters)
The White House's plan to dispatch members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to competitive districts for the midterm elections to aid Republican efforts is the best thing Democrats could hope for, said MS NOW Producer Steve Benen.
“[President Donald Trump’s] first-term Cabinet was a mess,” said Benen. “… But a month into the sixth year of Trump’s presidency, it’s probably fair to say that his second-term Cabinet is worse.”
Eleven months ago, New York Times’ Frank Bruni criticized Trump’s fledgling Cabinet in a scathing report, outlining the fact that Trump was not hiring for aptitude or intelligence. Trump, Bruni said, wanted bootlicks.
“Trump chose people for senior administration positions not because they had demonstrated the skills and disposition that those jobs required, not because they had paid their dues, not because they had proved their mettle. He wanted provocateurs. He wanted sycophants. … Competence didn’t enter the equation, so competence isn’t among the results. He got exactly what he paid for, and now a nation is paying the price," Bruni wrote.
One year later Benen said the results are clear.
“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is at the center of a variety of ongoing controversies and faces bipartisan calls for her ouster,” said Benen. “Attorney General Pam Bondi recently humiliated herself during a congressional hearing. Around the same time, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about his past history of snorting cocaine off toilet seats against a backdrop of systemic problems at the federal department he ostensibly leads.”
But there’s more, said Benen.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is at the center of overlapping controversies, while Benen describes Pete Hegseth as the “scandal-plagued nominee who became a scandal-plagued Pentagon chief.” Office of Management and Budget head Russ Vought is making enemies with Americans and his own party.
“And did I mention Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick? Because even some Republicans have raised concerns about his extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” said Benen. “What’s more, this is just a sampling based on recent developments.”
Benen points out that last year, an NBC News poll was already finding a 52 percent majority of Americans disappointed with the people Trump had hired. This was the highest number the network had found across the past four administrations.
“It’s a safe bet that if that same question were included in a national survey now, the number would be even higher,” said Benen.