MaddowBlog-As scandals mount, the troubled White House Cabinet isn't doing Trump any favors

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The president’s first-term Cabinet was a mess. The Republican’s second-term Cabinet is almost certainly worse.

Trump’s first-term Cabinet was a mess. His second-term Cabinet is even worse.

Just in recent weeks we’ve seen devastating controversies and scandals surrounding
- Lutnick
- Chavez-DeRemer
- Noem
- Bondi
- Hegseth
- RFK Jr.
- Gabbard
- Vought
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-23T19:18:28.784Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/as-scandals-mount-the-troubled-white-house-cabinet-isnt-doing-trump-any-favors

But a month into the sixth year of Trump’s presidency, it’s probably fair to say that his second-term Cabinet is worse. Politico reported on Saturday:

President Donald Trump is mired in the most difficult stretch of his presidency. His Cabinet is only making his life harder. As he prepares for a primetime address to the nation on Tuesday, storm clouds hang overhead. […]

At seemingly every turn, Trump’s increasingly off-message Cabinet is undermining his administration’s broader agenda.

Last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sat down with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, and the host mentioned plans to deploy Cabinet members as surrogates in competitive districts ahead of the midterm elections. The New York Democrat, who is not known for showing his emotions on his sleeve, couldn’t help but smile.

To be sure, the problem is not altogether new. The New York Times’ Frank Bruni wrote a hard-hitting column last year that read in part:

As President Trump’s crackerjack cabinet settles in and unsettles any sentient American, we are not beholding a series of discrete embarrassments and outrages. We are witnessing iterations of the same horror story. 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. He wanted to test his supporters’ compliance and send his detractors into a tizzy.

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.

That was published in late March, nearly 11 months ago. The beleaguered White House Cabinet has managed only to reach new depths since then....

Around this time a year ago, an NBC News poll found that a 52% majority of Americans said they were disappointed with the people the president had appointed to posts in his administration — 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.

[tanyev]

1. Donny's magnetism attracts them like flies to manure.