I’ve had writer’s block for a while but there are a few topics I wanted to talk about so we’ll see how far I get.
A few days ago my wife asked me when I thought the first resignation/firing of one of President Trump’s cabinet members would come. I said “within a month”.
To cast your mind back during President Trump’s first term there was considerable turnover among his appointees. I suspect this term will be little different in that respect.
The most obvious candidate for dismissal is Secretary of Defense Hegseth but, although he’s skating on thin ice, I doubt he’ll be the first to go. We’ll see what happens but Homeland Security Sec. Noem’s losing her purse with her passport, ID badge, etc. is not a particularly good look under the circumstances. I suspect she’ll be able to weather the kerfuffle.
So, those are my questions. When will the first resignation/dismissal come and who will it be?
He didnt choose his cabinet for competency but rather for loyalty, so it will take an act seen as disloyal to get one fired. Offhand, I would expect that means someone who actually has some level of competency like Bessent or Rubio who might actually object or not totally support Trump in some way. If you read the Politico piece where a strong Trump supporter quit the DoD because Hegseth sucks he made some vague claims that these big mistakes by Hegseth could be seen as disloyal, so I guess they could play it that way if they want him out.
Steve
I thought it was clear Elon would be the first to go; since both he and Trump confirmed in the last couple of days, also coinciding with Federal law mandating Elon’s position as a special government employee end in late May. Elon has also served his main responsibility, using his experience from taking over Twitter in assisting Trump takeover the Federal government.
As for Hegseth and the rest of cabinet; if the army is figuratively the “gun” and law enforcement the “knife” and the adage about power; I doubt Trump will let go of cabinet members controlling those two functions if that weakens his control of government; and none of them have created personal peril for Trump. A lesson from Trump’s first term was his shaky hold on the Justice department, homeland security, intelligence community and military caused a lot of grief.
Look at who Trump’s first term and those in the “hard power positions”.
Sessions — fired for putting Trump in legal peril by recusing over Russia
Tillerson — fired for trying to run his own policy agenda
Mattis — fired for trying to run his own policy agenda
Nielsen — resigned unwilling to implement harder border policies
Kelly — shuffled to chief of staff.
Pompeo — shuffled to secretary of state
Coats — fired for repeatedly publicly contradicting Trump
So far, Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, Gabbard, and Rubio haven’t made those type of missteps.