Anticipating Future Resignations: Trump’s Cabinet Faces Growing Turmoil, Notes Andrew Neil

The new administration has not even begun, and Donald Trump has not yet resumed his position behind the Oval Office desk. However, there is already a high turnover of potential candidates for key positions, coming and going at a rapid pace.

During Trump’s first term, the loss of senior officials did not occur until after he had taken office and demonstrated himself to be a challenging and unpredictable leader. By the end of his initial administration, turnover in top positions had reached 92 percent. Now, individuals are leaving even before he reassumes his role.

The first departure was Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick for Attorney General, also known in Trump’s circle as the Revenger-in-Chief. Gaetz, a devoted supporter of Trump, was expected to uncover the president’s numerous adversaries within the so-called ‘deep state’, which includes the Justice Department that he would have overseen.

Except that the moment his nomination was announced, previous but still seriously damaging accusations of sex trafficking and sexual relationships with minors soon resurfaced. Even more important, as Gaetz quickly discovered, so egregious had been his recent behavior in Congress that he had few friends but plenty of enemies on the Hill. And that was just on the Republican side.

Confirmation of his appointment was problematic, to put it politely. Within a week, even he realized it was best to withdraw. Trump did nothing to dissuade him. He quickly nominated instead Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general who served as one of Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment in 2020.

The switch for Trump was like water off a duck’s back. Bondi had been the choice of Susie Wiles, who will be Trump’s White House chief of staff, all along. Trump seemed as happy with the outcome as Wiles.

Now Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice (so far) for Defense Secretary, is fighting for his political life, which looks destined to be very short.

The nomination of the Fox News host (and military veteran) was greeted with an avalanche of allegations, including disinterred accusations of raping a woman (which he denies but whom he paid off to secure her silence and avoid a lawsuit), the relentless pursuit of female subordinates at work, multiple claims of being drunk on the job and the mismanagement of funds at two small non-profit veteran groups he headed (not quite what you want in your resumé for the Pentagon, biggest department in the federal government).

Hegseth also once said he does not believe that women should serve in combat roles (even though that role is now well-established).

I think it safe to say Team Trump’s vetting of their man before going public with his nomination was not exactly exhaustive.

Hegseth tramped the corridors of Congress on Wednesday desperately trying to shore up his faltering nomination. He claims Trump has told him to ‘keep fighting’. No doubt the President-elect forgot to mention he was already in discussions with another Floridian and military vet, Governor Ron DeSantis, for the Pentagon position.

Hegseth remains undeterred. Even his mother, Penelope, was wheeled on to Fox News on Wednesday morning to defend her son. She’d sent a devastating email to him during his divorce in 2018 accusing him of routinely abusing women and lacking any decency and character. Quite the damning criticism from one’s own mother.

Now she was on Fox & Friends to tell the world ‘Pete is a new person… redeemed, forgiven, changed.’

She has already attacked the media for publishing the email which gave her son both barrels but not reporting that she’d quickly sent a follow up apology withdrawing her scathing remarks.

Which is fair enough. Though the problem is that she has not been able to produce the second email. So the media is unable to publish it. Nobody is taking her change of heart seriously.

The skids are clearly under Hegseth. Republican senators who had previously dismissed the accusations against him as ‘side issues’ have gone quiet.

Lindsay Graham, Republican Senator for South Carolina, acolyte of The Donald and a reliable lagging indicator of the way the wind is blowing, now says the claims against Hegseth are ‘very disturbing’, that confirmation is going to be ‘very difficult’, that leadership of the Pentagon requires ‘good order and discipline’ (sorry, Pete) and, just to twist the knife, ‘every young woman who joins the military needs to feel respected and welcomed’ (really sorry, Pete).

For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee, Pete.

The Republicans have a 53 to 47 Senate majority. If three demur from backing Hegseth he could still clinch the nomination because, as vice president, JD Vance will also be President of the Senate with a casting vote in the event of a tie. But with four Republican dissenters, Hegseth would be finished. I know of at least five likely to vote against him — and the number is growing.

The revolving door is already doing overtime. As all eyes were on the Hegseth circus, Trump’s candidate for the Drug Enforcement Agency, Chad Chronister, Sheriff of Hillsborough County Florida, barely lasted 24 hours before the President-elect pulled him on Tuesday for something he said which Trump found disobliging.

Nor did Trump’s choice for White House counsel, William McGinley, get the chance to start his job. Picked by Trump only a few weeks ago, he was replaced this week by David Warrington, the Trump campaign’s top lawyer.

There is more fun and games to come — and with bigger fish. The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health Secretary is anything but a slam dunk. He has backed enough kooky conspiracy theories in his time, advocated multiple bizarre approaches to health and harbored several sex-related skeletons of his own to prove a dripping roast for the Senate confirmation process.

Then there’s Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice to be Director of National Intelligence, a controversial pick for such a post given her penchant for repeating Kremlin talking points and her cozying up to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. All that will provide the Senate with another field day.

To be fair, many of Trump’s choices for his second administration are respectable and uncontroversial, including the prime posts of Treasury (Scott Bessent, an experienced financier) and State (Marco Rubio, who specialized in foreign affairs as a senator). It’s the more explosive ones that generate the headlines — and even then, there could be method to Trump’s apparent madness.

It is all very much part of his long-standing modus operandi. Set ally against ally to see who emerges on top. It’s fun to watch. Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. If it sticks, proceed. If some of it slides off, get rid of it quickly and move on with something more reliably sticky.

It’s usually a win-win for Trump.

His more outlandish nominations reassure his base that he really does intend to ‘drain the swamp’. If they stumble during the confirmation process, he can blame the ‘deep state’ and move to somebody more mainstream, all the while averring he will not rest til the deep state is dealt with.

The Trump base is content. Their man is doing his best. Trump is content. He still gets a few outsiders and usurpers to stir things up but will rely largely on more mainstream figures to govern the country.

Of course, the road will be rockier than that. Trump 2.0 will not be for those of a nervous disposition. He will quickly fallout with many of his more cautious appointees. Some will resign, others quit to write their tales about how terrible he is (something of a cottage industry in his first administration).

Some usurpers will likely prove more trouble than they’re worth. Trump will be forced to part company with them. The inevitable fallout with Elon Musk, for example, will be an epic of monster movie proportions — a veritable Godzilla v King Kong on the banks of the Potomac.

So that revolving door will need to be kept well oiled. For it will be in constant use these next four chaotic but fascinating years.