A Cabinet of Trump Fluffers

One of the themes to which I have repeatedly returned in this blog is that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump did not choose his cabinet members because of their abilities to lead and manage their departments, but rather due to their personal loyalty to him and their ability to promote Trump on television. Take, for instance, Linda McMahon, the Secretary of the Department of Education. She has absolutely no background in education, coming from the world of World Wrestling Entertainment. However, she is perfectly capable of delivering a televised brown-nosing of Trump, such as when she described him as the "education president" and praised him for elevating education in the country. To succeed as a Trump cabinet secretary requires a complete lack of shame and a single-minded focus on promoting Trump. The result is that cabinet members frequently appear on TV, but tend to shed little light on the work of their departments, devoting most of their efforts to praising Trump or talking about unrelated issues.

Full disclosure: I have blatantly stolen the idea for this post from Aaron Rupar. If you are not familiar with Rupar, he is a journalist who writes and publishes "Public Notice," a website devoted to news and commentary about politics and media. However, Rupar may be best known for posting clips from television broadcasts. You can follow his posts on Bluesky, where he provides unmatched access to what political figures, especially Trump, are saying on a daily basis. If you, like me, find his contributions to be indispensable, consider subscribing to his newsletter and kicking in a few bucks to support his efforts.

For months, Rupar has been posting clips of cabinet secretaries speaking about something well outside their area of responsibility and commenting that "nobody in the Trump administration has real job duties beyond fluffing the leader on TV." For instance, yesterday Rupar posted a clip of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick standing next to Trump in the Oval Office talking about mail-in ballots. To be clear, the Department of Commerce has nothing to do with either elections or the U.S. Postal Service. Lutnick has no responsibilities pertaining to voting by mail. Having Lutnick promote Trump's position on voting by mail is not that much different than asking me to explain the genome of a frog. But, there is a reason that Lutnick has gained the moniker "Nutlick." Rupar captioned the video clip:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is in the Oval Office riffing on mail voting, because nobody in the Trump administration has real job duties beyond fluffing the leader on TV.

An alternative caption could have been "Two men repeatedly mentioned in the Epstein files converse." Lutnick, you may remember, visited Jeffrey Epstein's island with his family and then lied about it.

The phenomenon on which Rupar has been commenting has been especially apparent since Trump launched his war on Iran. While neither Trump nor anyone else in his administration can adequately explain why Trump started the war, many members of the cabinet have tried their hand at promoting U.S. actions. Two days ago, for instance, Rupar provided a clip of Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent appearing on Fox News' Fox & Friends and talking about the Houthis and their involvement in the war. Given the risks to the U.S. economy presented by the Iran war, Bessent has plenty to discuss within his own lane. But, as Rupar captioned the clip:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is on Fox & Friends riffing about war strategy, because nobody in the Trump administration has real job duties beyond going on TV and fluffing the leader

Similarly, last week Rupar posted a clip of Energy Secretary Chris Wright appearing on CNBC where he also talked about the war. As Energy Secretary, Wright should be concerned about the impact of the war on oil prices and how the Trump administration might manage ensuring the availability of energy during what has become a global disruption. In fact, the question posed to Wright was along those lines. He was asked if the U.S. and Iran were close to some kind of a deal that would lead to lower oil prices. Wright's response ignored the question:

Well, if you look at the military campaign in the first three weeks, President Trump's leadership, General Caine of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did just a tremendous job. So we are rapidly eliminating Iran's ability to project power to its neighbors. You saw their attempts at longer-range missiles. This conflict is critical to remove the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East, the greatest killer of American soldiers over the last two decades, and the campaign's going well. So when the campaign's going well, the other side is thinking, "Aw, maybe there's a way to achieve the same end." And what I love about President Trump, he sets a bold objective, but he's always open for negotiations. If there is a better, simpler way to get the same place we want to get, we are all ears.

Notice that Wright says nothing about oil prices. He also attributed the same attitude towards negotiations to both Iran and Trump (he suggests that both are open to an easier way to achieve their goals). In fact, there were no negotiations at that time. Rupar, not surprisingly, captioned this clip:

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is on CNBC riffing on the alleged success of Trump's military strikes against Iran, because nobody in the Trump administration has actual job duties beyond being on TV and fluffing the leader

The last example that I will provide is also from last week. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins appeared on Fox News where she was asked, "Are you hearing that we might have to raise taxes or maybe Europe and the Middle East can start to chip in for their own defense?" This was a strange question to ask the Secretary of Agriculture, something Rollins acknowledged during her response when she said, "I am the Ag secretary, I'm worried about the food supply." Nevertheless, Rollins started her response with the requisite brown-nosing of Trump, saying "Obviously this president has been unequivocal and resolute in his battle to put America first. We are seeing that firsthand now with the conflict overseas." She went on later to say:

But I know that this president, I mean whether you look at the biggest tax cuts in history last year in the One Big Beautiful Bill, if you look at the insane amount of money that is coming in through the tariffs funds throughout the world as the President has recalibrated the entire world economy around putting America first...This is about putting America first, about living within our means, it's about ensuring that our military is mighty and strong and the warriors, and Pete Hegseth and the President have, again, put on the field. More funding there, in the first term when I was there and again in this term. We are going to get this done and we are going to get it done in a way that puts America first and what a joy to be a part of the team.

I suspect that Rollins’s notes consisted of a single page with "American first" written in huge letters. She certainly made an effort to get that point across. What Rollins might have discussed was the shortage of fertilizer that American farmers are facing, the price increases that food will face as a result of increased oil costs, or how Trump's tariffs are impacting farmers. Instead, her response was an homage to Trump. Rupar, of course, captioned this clip:

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in on Fox News riffing on funding for Trump's war against Iran, because nobody in the Trump administration has actual job duties beyond going on TV and fluffing the leader.

It is entertaining to make fun of these people and their North Korean-like dedication to "Dear Leader," but there is a serious side to all of this. Lutnick, Bessent, Wright, and Rollins have real jobs that are important. By all indications, they are terrible at them. Granted that a job that requires you to zig and zag constantly depending on Trump's whims would be difficult for anyone, but we have an entire cabinet of individuals who have dedicated themselves to fluffing Trump. It is fairly easy to govern in good times, and former President Joe Biden left the Trump administration an economy that was the "envy of the world." Now things are going to become difficult as a result of Trump's own actions. The cabinet will actually have to perform duties beyond fluffing Trump. It is not at all clear that any of them will be capable of doing so.