NBC News reached out to 44 former cabinet officials of Donald Trump, and found that only four would endorse Trump for president in 2024 — former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker; Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff; former budget chief Russell Vought; and former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell. The rest either did not reply or said they did not believe Trump was fit for office, the latter group including former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former defense secretary Mark Esper.
“I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump,” former Attorney General Bill Barr told NBC News. Asked how he would vote if the general election pits Trump against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, Barr said: “I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it.”
And separately, it is clear that Mike Pence and Nikki Haley feel they can do a better job as president than Trump can — otherwise, they wouldn’t be running for president.
Trump fans have a ready-made excuse, that all of those unsupportive cabinet members are RINOs, squishes, sellouts, they were part of the establishment, they hated Trump because he was so effective, they didn’t have the stomach or nerve for a real fight, and so on. The problem that exceptionally few Trump supporters will acknowledge is that Trump chose all of those people, the same man who repeatedly boasted that he only hired the best people. So even if you dismiss those cabinet members as spineless RINO sellouts, you are left with a president who keeps hiring spineless RINO sellouts for key positions in his administration.
Apparently these Trump fans have endless faith that after making bad personnel decisions for four years of his presidency, he will magically get better at selecting and promoting loyal, dedicated, and competent staff after winning the next election.