Trump is marching into 2026 with the worst cabinet in history

[marmar]

Trump is marching into 2026 with the worst cabinet in history
Austin Sarat

From RFK Jr to Pete Hegseth, the president’s top aides have been disastrous. We shouldn’t be surprised


(Guardian) As 2024 ended and Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were rolled out, commentators scrambled to decide which one was the worst. Was it Matt Gaetz for attorney general? Or Pete Hegseth, for secretary of defense? Or maybe Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services?

Soon after, the White House crowed that Trump had assembled “the greatest cabinet of all time”.

Gaetz didn’t even make it to a confirmation hearing. But the others did, most narrowly squeaking through on party-line votes.

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As professor Warren Blumenfeld wrote last February, Trump chose “a man who spreads vaccine conspiracy theories to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a woman who cozies up to vicious dictators like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad to become director of national intelligence, an election denier and someone with an enemies list who intends to conduct a massive Stalinesque purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to run the FBI, (and) a woman who is a professional wrestling magnate to serve as secretary of education even though Trump wants to abolish the Federal Department of Education”.

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In addition, he has made a series of management blunders. As the Atlantic’s Tom Nichols puts it: “The halls of the Pentagon are apparently strewn with rakes these days, and Hegseth has managed to step on almost all of them, including security blunders, needless fights with the press, and envious, unmanly whining about the medals on the uniform of Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran of higher rank and far greater achievement than Hegseth himself. Like Trump, Hegseth thinks his job is to get even with people he views as enemies.” ..................(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/06/trump-is-marching-into-2026-with-the-worst-cabinet-in-history