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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   19785 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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The Trump cabinet shakeup continues

After Pam Bondi’s ouster today, which followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing last month, Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials were anxiously eyeing their phones, wondering whether they’d be next. One top official didn’t have to wait long: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the chief of staff of the Army, General Randy George. Several people familiar with the White House’s plans told us there are active discussions about others leaving the administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters, said that the timing was uncertain and that President Trump had not yet made up his mind. But what was once an unofficial motto of the second Trump term—“no scalps”—no longer applies.

Trump had been reluctant to get rid of any of his top lieutenants, viewing firings as a concession to the Democrats and the media. Even in the past few months, there had been an edict that no Cabinet officials would be removed prior to the midterms, though a series of dismissals were planned for after Election Day. But the president’s declining support since he launched the Iran war has changed the political calculus. The odds of confirming replacements, advisers know, are only growing longer. One person close to the White House told us that Trump was buoyed by the reaction to his decision to oust Noem, and that made him more likely to move ahead with Bondi. (Still, an administration official cautioned that after pushing out Noem, optics were a concern; officials worried that getting rid of Bondi would be viewed as jettisoning only the most “attractive” women, while keeping the men).

Some Trump allies (and many of his critics) believe that he had asked Bondi for the nearly impossible—to win convictions for seemingly unwinnable cases. But other members of the Cabinet and administration have expressed frustration that Bondi’s apparent lack of involvement in the details of managing the Justice Department resulted in basic mistakes. “They are sending in idiots” to defend the Trump administration in court without sufficient experience, one official from another agency told us. The president’s demand for absolute loyalty among the department’s rank and file resulted in a profound loss of institutional expertise and a sharply reduced talent pool. Multiple prominent Republican attorneys told us that they considered joining the second Trump DOJ. But the requirement to take what they viewed as an oath of loyalty to the president—not the Constitution—was a step too far.

Officials in other departments said they regarded the Justice Department’s errors as harmful to the administration’s credibility with judges, blowing up what should have been easy wins for the president. “This has been festering across the administration for a while,” said a second person close to the administration. “It’s the Epstein stuff, partly. It’s also the critiques of the indictments, like Comey. It’s a general sense of WTF—she’s not logging a lot of wins, not clocking a lot of good media.”

In Trump I, many of the early firings were because of insufficient loyalty. Trump adapted and overcame by ensuring personal loyalty at the apparent cost of competence. A junior law student could have told you his vengeance lawsuits would be laughed out of court. And it seems like the Iran SMO will snatch a few more scalps that would have delayed until after the midterms - poor Kash, he just wanted to party with the hockey chads. It's already claimed the Army Chief of Staff's, although it's not clear what exactly was wrong with Randy George's performance (the Army isn't even particularly involved in this op), or that of the Transformation and Training Command leader and the head of the Chaplain Corps.

Not a big Trump fan, although you have to respect his phenomenal instincts. I think his brain is kind of stupid, but my god his gut is smart.

Something that's been amusing, and impressive, is the speed at which Trump2 has operated at. They've really struggled to turn that speed into long term wins, but that's besides the point here.

Separately, I've noticed that the longer politicians are in power, the worse and worse their cabinet/advisors get. It's kind of an evaporative cooling effect where only sycophants remain.

A great example of this is Justin Trudeau. From what I could tell, that man was profoundly out of touch by the end. I think he thought he was doing the "right" thing, and he was clearly concerned with public image, so I assume he also did not think his dumbass ideas were as unpopular as they were. But given he was in power for quite some time, by the end I assume he was surrounded by people who just agreed with all his ideas and didn't go "Justin, they'll fucking hate that, no one wants more peasants imported"

It seems from this though, Trump2 has sped run that step too.

The president’s demand for absolute loyalty among the department’s rank and file resulted in a profound loss of institutional expertise and a sharply reduced talent pool

lol

Multiple prominent Republican attorneys told us that they considered joining the second Trump DOJ. But the requirement to take what they viewed as an oath of loyalty to the president—not the Constitution—was a step too far.

lmao even

Not a big Trump fan, although you have to respect his phenomenal instincts. I think his brain is kind of stupid, but my god his gut is smart.

Donald Trump is the caveman in the bell curve meme.

Trump I don’t think agrees on anything based on any comment or analysis greater than his own intuition, so he either gambles on outcomes or outsources the process to his cabinet who makes choices it for him. “Gut” can get you lucky and sometimes that luck can get you far, but eventually it runs out and comes crashing back down.

The chief ‘accomplishment’ people are going to remember him for in 20 years is the Iran war. There will be other points to speak of, but his presidency will eventually get colored into a specific issue the same way a lot of people only remember Obama for the Affordable Care Act and his rhetorical talents.

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