Imagine you were an employer looking to hire someone for your workplace team. You’ve collected some resumes, but to help make a decision, you decide it’s best to check with applicants’ references. After all, to get a sense of how someone would perform on the job, it makes sense to ask those who’ve worked with him/her in the recent past.
Then imagine you reach out to an applicant’s former colleagues, and when you ask whether they’d extend their support, nearly half of them hesitate. In fact, some are quite explicit in warning you not to hire the applicant.
Would you hire the person anyway?
Keep the question in mind when reading the latest Washington Post report on Donald Trump’s former cabinet officials.
It is rare for Cabinet members to not support the president they served. They are normally some of a president’s most loyal supporters. But in the case of Trump’s Cabinet, these uniquely qualified insiders — spanning from the vice president and chiefs of staff to more than a dozen agencies, such as Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security and Transportation — are deeply divided about whether he should return to power.
By the Post’s count, 42 people, at some point between January 2017 and January 2021, served in Trump’s cabinet. Based on the latest tally, 24 of them — roughly 57% — are publicly supporting their former boss’ ongoing candidacy.
The rest either won’t a position or have declared publicly that they won’t support the Republican Party’s 2024 nominee.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Post’s assessment is rather generous to the former president: Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, for example, has been brutal in his condemnations of Trump, but the newspaper’s official tally lists the retired general as not having taken a firm stand on the former president’s re-election bid.
Nevertheless, this is an exceedingly tough dynamic for Republicans to defend. Indeed, one of the reasons I’ve been preoccupied with this angle for quite a while is because it’s simply never happened before: Presidents have been known to clash from time to time with individual members of their administrations, but Trump is unique in facing so much opposition from his own team.
As ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos recently summarized during an appearance on MSNBC, “[Trump’s] secretary of State called him a ‘moron.’ [His Defense secretary] says Trump doesn’t even respect the Constitution. John Kelly says Trump’s the worst person he’s ever met. Think about that applying to any other president of the United States at any other time.
“Their chief of staff, their Defense secretary, their secretary of State, and national security adviser are the ones who had the most damning judgments of [Trump’s] competence and character. That is chilling.”
In June, President Joe Biden was equally eager to draw attention to this. “Take it from the people who know Donald Trump best — he is unfit to be president,” the Democratic incumbent concluded.
As we discussed last year, members of a White House cabinet have a unique perspective on an American presidency. After a president chooses them for their powerful positions, these cabinet officials routinely work closely with the person behind the desk in the Oval Office, learning first-hand how a president thinks, works, prioritizes, processes information, and leads.
In Trump’s case, an unprecedented number of people who worked side by side with Trump — former officials he chose for his team — are not supporting his 2024 candidacy.
I’ve long wondered what might persuade voters inclined to support Trump to change their minds. Who, if anyone, will they listen to?
Clearly, these voters will not be persuaded by pundits. Or lawmakers. Or historians. Or prosecutors. Or committee reports. Or special council investigations.
But perhaps they’ll consider listening to those who worked closely with Trump, and who are now keeping their distance as he tries to regain power?
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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