Trump is marching into 2026 with the worst cabinet in history |
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.
The result was what commentators labelled a “clown car cabinet”. Others pointed out the utter absurdity of the president’s choices.
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”.
He went on to say that the president had nominated “so many other utterly unqualified candidates for other offices that they should more fittingly fall into the category of disqualified”. Robert Reich, former secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, joined him, saying that the cabinet “is filled with bottom-feeders, frauds, fanatics, and fools”.
Whatever label we choose to apply, they led the United States through a disastrous year.
In terms of their “expertise, competence, experience, operational effectiveness, ethical standards, scandals … and the ability for cabinet members to challenge the president without repercussions”, it is already clear that Trump’s cabinet ranks as the worst in American history.
So bad has his cabinet’s performance been that, with less than 12 months of service, many have faced calls to........