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There are plenty of examples in American history of presidents clashing with assorted members of their teams. But by any fair measure, no one has ever seen anything like Donald Trump’s fierce conflicts with the people he chose for key positions in his administration.
As regular readers know, the former president has faced condemnations from an amazing number of officials from his own team. The list includes several former members of the White House Cabinet — the Republican’s former chief of staff can barely contain his visceral contempt for the former president — and it grows much longer if we include other officials who worked with Trump just below the Cabinet level.
As recently as two days ago, one of his former Defense secretaries went so far as to publicly characterize Trump as a threat to national security — which came on the heels of the same former Pentagon chief agreeing that Trump represents “a threat to democracy” and is “unfit for office.”
I’ve long wondered how the former president justifies all of this, which is why it was good to see Fox News’ Bret Baier broach the subject during an interview that aired late yesterday.
The Fox host began by reminding the former president that he promised voters he would surround himself “with only the best and most serious people.” Trump insisted that he did exactly that.
And so, Baier reviewed the larger landscape:
“Your vice president, Mike Pence, is running against you. Your ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, she’s running against you. Your former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he’s not supporting you. You mentioned National Security Adviser John Bolton, he’s not supporting you, either. You mentioned Attorney General Bill Barr, says you shouldn’t be president again. He calls you ‘the consummate narcissist’ and [a] ‘troubled man.’ You recently called Barr a ‘gutless pig.’ Your second Defense secretary is not supporting you, called you ‘irresponsible.’”
At that point, the Fox anchor went on to note that, in addition to the former members of Trump’s team who aren’t supporting him, there’s a comparable list of former members of Trump’s team whom he’s condemned, including several other members of his own cabinet.
“So,” Baier asked, “why did you hire all of them in the first place?”
That’s not quite the question I would’ve asked — I would’ve preferred to press Trump on why so many officials who worked closely with him seem terrified by the idea of him returning to power — but it didn’t matter, because the former president struggled with the line of inquiry anyway.
“I hired 10 to one that were fantastic,” the Republican replied. After briefly trying to change the subject, he added, “Don’t forget, for every one you say, I had 10 that love us.”
Except that’s not much of a defense. Imagine if a prolific car thief were asked to explain why he stole so many cars, and he replied, “But look at all the cars I didn’t steal! For every car I stole, there are 10 that I didn’t, so on balance....”
In fairness, I’m not sure if there is an actual defense for Trump’s conflicts with his own team. By some counts, roughly a dozen members of his own cabinet have broken with the former president — some are literally his rivals for the GOP’s 2024 nomination — and many have condemned him in no uncertain terms.
They worked closely with him. They had a front-row seat to how he thinks, how he processes information, how he treats people, and how he makes decisions. They’re now telling the American electorate not to vote for him.
Trump apparently can’t think of a way to explain that away, and honestly, neither can I.