Outcry grows over ‘clown car’ cabinet but no sign Trump ready for shakeup | Donald Trump

HWith heads bowed, arms linked behind their backs, they gathered in a solemn prayer circle. “The quiet moments are often the most important,” Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, later said on social media. Then Team Trump entered the room to cheers and applause from Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Democrats gathered at the Capitol, however, viewed Donald Trump’s appointees to his cabinet and other leadership positions quite differently. In the last two weeks alone, they have seen a health secretary who bragged about snorting cocaine off toilet seats; a Homeland Security secretary who allegedly fired a pilot for leaving his blanket on a plane; and an FBI director who drank beer with Olympic hockey players in Italy, at taxpayer expense.

In all of American history, there has never been government leadership quite like this. Although these individuals swear undying loyalty to the president, their colorful and erratic antics could prove his political undoing. Yet there’s no evidence that the man who became famous for declaring “You’re fired!” on reality TV has no intention of putting them aside.

Tara Setmayer, founder of the Seneca Project, a women-led political organization, said: “If you elect a clown, he brings the circus. This is the government we have right now. It is the most corrupt, incompetent and embarrassing cabinet in the history of the United States and unfortunately, the American people are paying the price, literally and figuratively.”

She asked, “When you look at Donald Trump’s cabinet and how he has performed, you have to ask yourself, how are any of these people doing to make America great again?»

The selection of teams constitutes a first test of the new president’s judgment and does not always go smoothly. Albert Fall, Warren Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, accepted bribes from oil tycoons during the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s, becoming the first member of the president’s cabinet convicted of a crime.

John Mitchell, who was attorney general under Richard Nixon and took charge of his re-election campaign, was later convicted for his role in the Watergate cover-up and served time in prison. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense under George W Bush, has become an extremely controversial figure due to intelligence failures regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and his mishandling of the post-invasion insurgency.

Trump’s first term had more than its share of setbacks. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, recused himself from the Russia investigation and lost his job. Energy Secretary Rick Perry resigned over his role in Trump’s effort to push Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of a political rival. But others, like Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Wilbur Ross, Elaine Chao and Gina Haspel, were relatively conventional choices.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “There were actually some good people in Trump’s first cabinet, who probably saved us, saved the country. But this time, I can’t remember a cabinet in my lifetime with so many problematic characters who are just horrible and who normally would never have been selected and who, if they had somehow escaped, would have been fired by now.”

“Trump keeps them because, in some ways, maybe they’re more like him. They’re so horrible and we’re more used to him that somehow he’s more acceptable. You have to use that kind of twisted psychology to analyze Trump.”

As on many other fronts, Trump 2.0 is a different proposition. Critics say many members of his team lack relevant experience and that their job performance is judged primarily on their loyalty to the president. The past year has been marked by a series of mistakes, missteps and downright bizarre antics that have some making comparisons to a clown car.

Pam Bondi, the attorney general, was recently mocked for her performance at a congressional hearing. Asked about the appearance of Trump’s name in Jeffrey Epstein’s files, she called him “the greatest president in American history” and asked members to talk about the stock market boom instead. Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary, said on her show MS Now: “The whole point is to give a grown-up version of Regina George from Mean Girls. »

Last year, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, used Signal to provide exact times for fighter jet launches and when bombs would be dropped on Houthi rebels in Yemen — before U.S. personnel took off. His use of the app came to light when a reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic magazine, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz.

In an interview last year, Howard Lutnick, US Commerce Secretary, said that after being disturbed by a visit to Epstein’s home in 2005, he “decided that I would never be in the room with that disgusting person again” – yet Epstein’s files revealed that Lutnick had visited Epstein’s private island for lunch in 2012.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation by the inspector general over allegations that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a Security Service subordinate, drank alcohol on the job and used department funds for personal travel; his lawyer denies the allegations. Meanwhile, her husband, Shawn DeRemer, was barred from department headquarters after at least two female staff members alleged he sexually assaulted them.

Robert Kennedy Jr became health secretary despite a history of vaccine skepticism and spreading misinformation. Earlier this month, a 90-second viral video showed him and musician Kid Rock working out, enjoying a sauna and drinking milk. Meanwhile, in a podcast interview, Kennedy insisted he wasn’t afraid of germs, explaining: “I used to snort cocaine off toilet seats. »

Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, is one of the most controversial figures in the cabinet because of deadly anti-immigration measures in Minneapolis and elsewhere. It was recently reported that a U.S. Coast Guard pilot was allegedly fired after one of Noem’s personal blankets was forgotten on a government plane during a trip — only to be reinstated because no one else was available to make the flight home.

In January, Gabbard was photographed hiding during an FBI raid at an election warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia. The director of national intelligence generally oversees foreign intelligence rather than domestic law enforcement. Gabbard’s presence was further criticized when reports emerged that she facilitated a direct phone call between Trump and rank-and-file FBI agents.

Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, has been a lightning rod since he took over as head of the FBI, frequently blurring the lines between his official duties and his personal interests. Last weekend, he was spotted celebrating loudly in the locker room with the U.S. men’s hockey team after their gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics.

Setmayer, former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, commented: “At every turn I think Kash Patel can no longer embarrass himself or the United States; he seems to be the one doing it. He is the most absolute loser to ever serve as FBI director. He is an absolute disgrace on every level and it is shameful that the good men and women who remain in the FBI have to serve under him.”

Democrats raised questions about Patel’s trip on a taxpayer-funded plane. More than 160 Democrats supported a House resolution to impeach Noem after the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of two U.S. citizens protesting mass deportations. Democrats are also seeking a subpoena against Lutnick for his lies about Epstein. But there are few signs that members of the Trump team are losing their jobs.

Setmayer said, “The reason we don’t really see accountability for the transgressions of virtually the entire Cabinet is because if they hold any one of them accountable, that means you have to hold Donald Trump accountable. It’s coming from the head here. These Cabinet officials know there’s no bottom, for the most part, because who is actually going to hold them accountable other than the American people?”

While Trump’s first term was marked by personal turmoil, his second was remarkably stable. Even Waltz, the “Signalgate” culprit, was simply moved to the role of US ambassador to the UN. The president seems more reluctant than ever to admit a mistake or offer a sacrifice to the media; he knows new appointees could face a tricky confirmation process in the Senate; and he seems comfortable indulging in extravagant displays of sycophancy at cabinet meetings.

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said: “This is the most unserious, least qualified, least committed cabinet that we have seen in many of our lifetimes. They seem intent on a hearing in front of an audience of one person – that’s the president – and they seem committed to only one agenda, and that is Maga’s extreme agenda.”

“Republicans, especially this president, often talk about running government like a business, but in the business world, most, if not all, of the candidates who were in that cabinet would not even be qualified to interview, much less would not be qualified to actually fill the positions they hold. »

Seawright added: “This shows the double standards and hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Under no circumstances would this be tolerated by a Democratic administration.

“If we were up to this, they would have called for impeachment, resignation and acted like the world was on fire, but instead the Legislative Branch refuses to do its job of policing the Executive Branch and so there is no accountability or punishment for being extreme, crazy or harming the lives of the American people. »