Trump’s Cabinet of chaos
Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee this week described Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as “those people that help separate our country from chaos.” While it might surprise some administration observers to learn that anything is separating the nation from chaos, Corker has a point about the thin gray line of generals and executives who constitute the embattled anti-entropy faction of President Trump’s Cabinet.
These top officials have contradicted Trump’s most chaotic instincts in remarkably public fashion. This week, for example, as the president escalated his disparagement of the multilateral agreement to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Mattis, a former head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate committee that the agreement enhances national security and that Trump should consider upholding it. The sentiment reportedly may be shared by another general working for Trump, national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Meanwhile, in contrast to Trump’s reckless taunting of nuclear-armed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Tillerson said recently that U.S. officials are communicating with Pyongyang and trying to “calm things down.” That prompted a bizarre Twitter retort in which the president accused his own secretary of state of “wasting his time” on diplomacy — which happens to be not only the former ExxonMobil CEO’s job but also, given the likely consequences of another Korean war, the only approach that is not a waste of time.
Trump’s most seasoned senior staff has attempted to temper him in other ways. Kelly is said to have stanched a deluge of information and misinformation that was flowing through the Oval Office. Mattis appears to be slow-walking Trump’s bigoted assault on transgender service members. Gary Cohn, the National Economic Council director and a former Goldman Sachs CEO, took public exception to Trump’s defense of a racist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
The trouble with this cadre of reasonably competent senior officials is that it is precarious and not particularly numerous. Corker posited his chaos theory when asked about an NBC report that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” in a meeting with other senior staff and nearly quit. That forced the secretary to hold a press conference this week in which he denied considering leaving his post — and failed to deny pointedly questioning the president’s intellect. Kelly, McMaster and Cohn also have been subject to periodic speculation about how long they can possibly last.
Most of the rest of Trump’s Cabinet, meanwhile, inspires less confidence. The aptly named Tom Price left the Health and Human Services Department headless last week after his seven-figure bill for flitting about the country on chartered jets was deemed too pricey, and five other Cabinet members have come under scrutiny for travel expenses. Another vast and crucial department, Homeland Security, has been under an acting secretary for more than two months due to Trump’s failure to nominate a successor to Kelly.
Perhaps a few skilled officials are separating the government from chaos, but it’s not by much.