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Incompetent. Unqualified. Arrogant. Uninformed. Dangerous.
Whatever adjective you want to use, many of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members are showing the world why they should not be in top government jobs.
Exhibit number one is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. We learned this week that the former Fox News anchor improperly shared information about attack plans against Houthi militants in Yemen with his wife, brother and his lawyer, people clearly not authorized to know such things.
It is the second instance where Hegseth has been found to have inappropriately shared sensitive, maybe even classified, information about an upcoming military operation. Previously, we learned that Hegseth shared information about the March bombing in Yemen in a Signal chat with a large group that included an editor for The Atlantic.
Further, the fact that he used his personal cell phone and a commercial messaging app is pretty damning for an administration that made a huge deal about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using a private server for some of her official emails.
Hegseth, unfortunately, is proving that the many people who said he was not qualified to lead the Pentagon were right. Those people include Sen. Susan Collins, who voted against his nomination (as did Sen. Angus King), the BDN editorial board and numerous former military officials.
Predictably, Hegseth did not take responsibility for his failures and instead blamed the media and members of his staff for his actions.
If a member of the U.S. military had improperly shared sensitive information about military operations, which Hegseth is now known to have done in two instances, they would likely have been court martialed and their military career ended.
Hegseth should be no different. If he won’t resign, he should be fired and replaced with someone with more military and management experience who better understands the importance of protecting classified information. In addition to being more qualified, that person should have a better grasp of America’s role in the world and that military might is only one part of international engagement.
In another incident, the purse of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was stolen at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. This happened despite the fact that Noem has 24/7 Secret Service protection, which raised a lot of questions about the effectiveness of that protection. If Noem and the Secret Service can’t protect a purse, we’re concerned about their ability to protect our homeland.
It is noteworthy that Noem had about $3,000 in cash in her purse. She said she had the money to pay for gifts and activities for family members who were in town for Easter.
DHS used the fact that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man erroneously sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, had about $1,100 in his possession during a 2019 arrest to claim that this proves he was a gang member. Despite numerous court orders to do so, the Trump administration has refused to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., where he was living lawfully.
Because of views that are out of the mainstream, debunked by medical and scientific researchers and, in some cases, outright dangerous, numerous medical and social justice groups raised concerns about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Last week, Kennedy made uninformed and insulting comments about people with autism. After backlash, Kennedy clarified his remarks, saying they applied to only those with the most severe cases of autism.
While we support Kennedy’s intent to learn more about the potential links between industrial chemicals, food additives, and other factors and autism and other conditions, we are very concerned about his plan to create an autism registry. Without appropriate guidelines, and in light of the concerning access to reams of personal information by Elon Musk’s DOGE team, we are very worried about the security of this information and what it might be used for.
Of course, the president himself has little regard for the truth or the law, and has taken numerous actions since his inauguration in January that have harmed America. So, it may seem quaint to expect cabinet members to follow the law and to safeguard the welfare and interests of Americans.
Call us quaint, but if they clearly aren’t up to the job, cabinet members like Hegseth should be replaced.
