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

theguardian.com · Mar 1, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Heads bowed, linked by arms across their backs, they gathered in a solemn prayer circle. “The quiet moments are often the most important,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, reflected later on social media. Then Team Trump entered the chamber to cheers and applause for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.Democrats gathered on Capitol Hill, however, regarded the people appointed by Donald Trump to his cabinet and other senior positions rather differently. In the past two weeks alone, they saw a health secretary who boasted about snorting cocaine off toilet seats; a homeland security secretary who allegedly fired a pilot for leaving her blanket on a plane; and an FBI director who chugged beer with Olympic hockey players in Italy at taxpayers’ expense.In all of US history, there has never been government leadership quite like it. Although these individuals swear undying fealty to the president, their colourful and erratic antics may prove his political undoing. Yet there is no hint that the man who became famous for saying “You’re fired!” on reality TV has any intention of casting them aside.Tara Setmayer, founder of the Seneca Project, a women-led political organisation, said: “If you elect a clown, he brings the circus. This is the cabinet that we currently have. It is the most corrupt, incompetent, and embarrassing cabinet in the history of the United States and unfortunately it’s the American people who are paying for it, literally and figuratively.”She asked: “When you look at Donald Trump’s cabinet, and how they have performed, you have to ask yourself, how are any of these people making America great again?”Team selections are an early test of an incoming president’s judgment and do not always go smoothly. Albert Fall, interior secretary under Warren Harding, accepted bribes from oil tycoons in the 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, becoming the first presidential cabinet member convicted of a felony.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 prison time. Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary under George W Bush, became a hugely divisive 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 fair share of hiccups. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, recused himself from the Russia investigation and lost his job. Energy secretary Rick Perry quit over his role in Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine officials to investigate the son of a political rival. But others, such as Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Wilbur Ross, Elaine Chao and Gina Haspel, were relatively conventional picks.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, which probably saved us, saved the country. But this time I don’t recall a cabinet in my lifetime with this many problematic characters who are just awful and who normally would never have been selected and if somehow they’d slipped through would have been fired by now.“Trump keeps them around because, in a way, they may look him better. They’re so awful and we’re more used to him that somehow he’s more acceptable. You have to use this kind of twisted psychology in analysing Trump.”As on so many other fronts, Trump 2.0 is a different proposition. Critics say many members of his team lack relevant experience and their job performance is judged on loyalty to the president above all else. The past year has witnessed a series of blunders, missteps and downright bizarre antics that prompt some to draw comparisons with a clown car.Pam Bondi, the attorney general, recently earned mockery for her performance at a congressional hearing. Questioned about Trump’s name appearing in the Jeffrey Epstein files, she called him “the greatest president in American history” and told members to talk about the booming stock market instead. Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary, said on her MS Now show: “The whole thing is giving a grown-up version of Regina George from Mean Girls.”Last year Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, used Signal to provide the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop on Houthi rebels in Yemen – before US personnel were airborne. His use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of the 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 after being disturbed by a tour of Epstein’s home in 2005, he “decided I will never be in the room with that disgusting person again” – yet the Epstein files revealed that Lutnick visited Epstein’s private island for lunch in 2012. Meanwhile the Politico website reported that even Trump is frustrated “about how much Lutnick’s family has been profiting off their association with the president’s brand”.Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, is facing an inspector general investigation into allegations that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a security detail subordinate, drank alcohol on the job and used department funds for personal travel; her lawyer denies the claims. Meanwhile her husband, Shawn DeRemer, was barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members alleged that he had sexually assaulted them.Robert Kennedy Jr became health secretary despite a history of vaccine scepticism and spreading false information. Earlier this month a viral 90-second video showed him and musician Kid Rock working out, enjoying a sauna and drinking milk. Meanwhile, in a podcast interview, Kennedy insisted that he is not afraid of germs, explaining: “I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.”Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, is one of the cabinet’s most controversial figures because of deadly anti-immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis and elsewhere. It was recently reported that a US Coast Guard pilot was allegedly fired after one of Noem’s personal blankets was left behind on a government plane during a trip – only to be reinstated because no one else was available to fly the return leg.In January, Gabbard was photographed lurking during an FBI raid on an election warehouse in Fulton county, Georgia. The director of national intelligence typically oversees foreign intelligence rather than domestic law enforcement. Gabbard’s presence was further criticised when reports emerged that she facilitated a direct phone call between Trump and rank-and-file FBI agents.Tulsi Gabbard speaks on the phone at the Fulton county election center las month. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/ReutersKash Patel, the director of the FBI, has been a lightning rod since taking over the FBI, frequently blurring the lines between his official duties and his personal interests. Last weekend he was spotted celebrating raucously in the locker room with the US men’s hockey team after their gold medal win at the Milan Winter Olympics.Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, commented: “Every moment I think that Kash Patel cannot embarrass himself or the United States any more, he seems to do it. He is the most unqualified loser to ever hold the office of FBI director. He is an absolute disgrace on every level and it’s shameful that the good men and women who are still left at the FBI have to serve under him.”Democrats raised questions about Patel’s travel on a taxpayer-funded plane. More than 160 Democrats backed a House of Representatives resolution to impeach Noem after the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of two US citizens who protested against mass deportations. Democrats are also pursuing a subpoena against Lutnick over his Epstein lies. But there is little sign of any members of Team Trump losing their jobs.Setmayer said: “The reason we’re not seeing really any accountability for the transgressions of virtually the entire cabinet is because if they hold one of them accountable then that means you have to hold Donald Trump accountable. It flows from the head here. These cabinet officials know that there is no bottom, for the most part, because who’s going to actually hold them accountable other than the American people?”Whereas Trump’s first term was marked by personnel turbulence, his second has been remarkably stable. Even Waltz, culpable for “Signalgate”, was merely transferred to the role of US ambassador to the UN. The president seems more reluctant than ever to admit a mistake or hand the media a sacrifice; he knows that new appointees could face a sticky confirmation process in the Senate; and he appears comfortable to bask in extravagant displays of sycophancy at cabinet meetings.Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said: “This is the most unserious, unqualified, uncommitted cabinet we’ve seen in many of our lifetimes. They seem committed to an audition for an audience of one – that’s the president – and they seem committed to one agenda, and that’s the Maga extreme agenda.“The Republicans, particularly this president, often refer to running government like a business, but in the business world most of, if not all, of the candidates who were serving in this cabinet would not even qualify for an interview, better yet not qualify to actually serve in the roles that they are serving in.”Seawright added: “It goes to show you the double standard and hypocrisy from the Republican party. In no way, shape or form would this be tolerated by any Democratic administration.“If we came close to any of this, they would have been calling for impeachment, calling for resignation and acting as if the world was on fire, but instead the legislative branch refuses to do its oversight job on the executive branch and so there is no accountability and no punishment for being extreme, being cr