Competency
“Things refuse to be mismanaged long.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The cabinet for Trump’s first term was the definition of churn, with half of the cabinet resigning or being fired with the first two years.
The emphasis on Trump’s second term cabinet was loyalty and much less so competency. Some of his cabinet like Rubio (Secretary of State), Bondi (Attorney General) and Bessent (Secretary of the Treasury), while you can argue on their asdfasdfasdf, had qualifications for their position. Others, like Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation) and Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense), have a meandering dotted line from their qualifications to their position, oddly enough both passed through FOX News along the way. No meandering line can explain RFK Jr (Secretary of HHS) and Kristi Noem (Secretary of Homeland Security).
Graft
“Charity’s fine, subscribe to mine. You’ve got to pick a pocket or two” – Lionel Bart
There is a scene in The Blues Brothers (1980) where, at the end of a gig at a country western bar, the owner presents the band with their bar bill. Elwood explains “When we first came in the bar lady never charged us for the first round.”
I feel that $400M airplane gift from Qatar was this exact same logic. People griped but no one stood up and prevented the transaction. So Trump just assumed, rightfully apparently, that all bets were off.
It will take historians years to sort out all the deals, but some deals are more egregious than others. A United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm announced plans last year to deposit $2 billion into a Trump crypto firm — two weeks before the president gave the country access to advanced chips.
It’s telling that Trumps two special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are both businessmen with little or no prior experience with diplomacy. Oddly, they’ve had multiple trips to Russia but have never visited the Ukraine.