Should You Not Immediately Resign?
I have never bought into the idea that anyone could enter the Trump administration thinking anything good could happen there, or that any “qualified” person, could somehow be the adult in the room that could make a difference.
I didn’t believe it in 2017 and I certainly did not believe it at the start of Trump’s second term in January. Trump’s flaws as a human being were well known before he began running for president and they seem to have only gotten worse with age and presumed immunity from prosecution. Nonetheless, the American people have twice found a way to get past the obvious warnings and have elected him twice.
One hundred days in — the unprofessional, indecent, incompetent nature of this second Trump administration is on full display. The damage done to the country and the reputation of the United States around the world is immense. It will take years for us to recover.
In any normal administration, and that would include all previous non-Trump administrations, government appointees would be resigning on a daily basis as a result of their own incompetence or out of protest over what the president is doing in the name of the American people. Even Richard Nixon resigned. But not the Trump crowd.
I would like to make the case for the immediate resignation of at least fifteen members of the Trump cabinet and inner circle. Not that I expect them to resign, but just to point out the temerity they display by continuing to serve in important positions they are unqualified for or have botched.
This column may amuse you, but only because the best comedy is based in reality.
Karoline Leavitt. During her first briefing at the White House, Leavitt promised never to lie from the podium in the briefing room. You know the rest of the story.
Her promise did not last long and almost as disturbingly, like Trump press secretaries before her, she has used the credibility that comes with the White House podium to attack the character of Trump critics and anyone the White House deems a “bad actor.”
In recent weeks, she has used the power of her role as a spokesman for the president to question the character of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia by making unsubstantiated, un-supported claims about his background, and maliciously blaming him for gang violence in this country he personally has nothing to do with. (Abrego-Garcia, who came to the country as an un-documented immigrant, was given protected status by a U.S. court, preventing him from being deported to El Salvador, because his life would be in danger there. At the direction of the Trump administration, El Salvador is exactly where he is — in a prison built for terrorists). Last week, Leavitt declared, “there is no world,” in which Abrego-Garcia will be allowed to return to this country and live with his family. The White House has dug in. Losing on this issue means losing on their wider aims.
Leavitt, who appears to know little about the Constitution, or how our government is meant to work, has no hesitation about using her position of power to smear anyone who did not vote for President Trump. If she does understand the import of her public statements, it’s even worse. For these reasons and many others, she should immediately resign.
Marco Rubio. The former U.S. Senator has made a career for himself by highlighting his family’s history as Cuban immigrants. He famously used the misleading phrase that his family “fled Castro’s Cuba” for years as part of his official biography despite the fact that the evidence suggests they actually left in 1956, several years before Castro took power.
Today, Rubio is Trump’s secretary of state and in recent weeks he has signed several questionable orders being used to justify the removal of international students on U.S. college campuses. Rubio, on behalf of Trump and his anti-immigration policies, is invoking a law that allows him to cancel the visas for people who pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy. The threat, in most cases, presents itself as an international student exercising free-speech rights, or in Rubio’s words, “causing a ruckus.” Rubio is willingly a party to tactics that most Americans associate with Castro’s Cuba, not the United States.
In the Senate, Rubio was an opponent of Russia and Vladimir Putin and a supporter of Ukraine. But when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the White House last month, Rubio sat silent and slouched on a couch in the Oval Office as Trump and Vice President Vance berated Zelenskyy with Russian talking points, embarrassing our country, alienating our European allies, and doing long-term damage to the reputation of the United States as a world leader. Three months in, Rubio has shown he is not up to the job. He should resign.
Pete Hegseth. Who would have thought that a man who openly admits to severe personal short-comings that include alcohol abuse and troubled relations with women would not be the best choice to be Secretary of Defense? Perhaps many believed his most recent role as a weekend morning host for Fox News out-weighed those short-comings and made him the best person — out of 340 million Americans — to lead the U.S. military. Personally, I had my doubts from the start. But that’s just me. I admit I sometimes have unrealistic standards.
Hegseth is at the center of a continuing storm involving the use of non-secure channels — like the Signal app and his personal cell phone — to share top secret information. The most recent reporting says he read-in his wife and brother, using his personal phone, on plans to attack Houthi bases in Yemen.
In Trumpworld fashion, when confronted with the truth, he chose to attack the reporter who revealed the information. A reporter who has most likely forgotten more about national defense than Hegseth has ever known.
Hegseth is entirely unqualified for the position he holds and he should recognize that his leadership at the top of the Pentagon puts members of the U.S. military and the entire country at risk. The only people in the world hoping that Hegseth lasts four years as U.S. Defense Secretary are our international rivals. For these reasons and many others, Hegseth should immediately resign.
Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem. This trio is supposed to be in charge of justice and protecting the homeland. But since their confirmation hearings they have shown only a willingness to use their positions to carry out the retribution President Trump seeks for his enemies.
Pam Bondi has no problem pursuing justice against anyone who threatens Tesla, or its owner Elon Musk. On the other hand, she has no problem with presidential pardons for over 1,000 people convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol and beating Capitol Hill police officers on January 6, 2021. She has no problem denying due process for immigrants targeted for deportation, but she does have a problem opening an investigation into the mis-handling of secret defense information by members of the administration.
Patel is Bondi’s partner in extra legal law enforcement. His testimony during his confirmation hearings, earlier this year, was disingenuous and portends a tenure at the FBI that will severely test the ethics of career agents and likely do damage to the FBI as an American institution. An institution still working every day to overcome the stigma of abuses of power in its past.
As Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem is good at playing dress up. Her tenure has been marked by the sycophantic loyalty required of all Trump appointees. Including the dishonesty that goes with it. In a few months she has developed a reputation as someone who likes to wear the uniforms of the various agencies that fall under her purview. To look tough. But she is not. In effect, there is a vacancy sign hanging outside her office. If someone is in charge of Homeland Security right now, it’s not Noem.
Bondi, Patel, and Noem are wholly unqualified and should resign.
Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe. Their role in Signalgate disqualifies all three. As the top intelligence officials in the U.S. government, none apparently questioned whether they should be discussing the details of a military strike in Yemen on a non-secure channel hours before the attack began. Waltz initiated the chat, but Gabbard and Ratcliffe did nothing to stop it and — along with everyone else on the call — did not ask what the editor in chief of The Atlantic was doing on the call.
When appearing on Capitol Hill to explain themselves, Gabbard and Ratcliffe were evasive and dishonest.
All three have proven themselves unsuitable for the jobs they hold and if they had any regard for the importance of their positions and how they have failed in those jobs they would resign.
Steve Witkoff. Witkoff is apparently playing the role played by Trump son- in-law Jared Kushner in the first Trump administration: Shadow Secretary of State.
His background is in real estate, but his official title in the Trump White House is Special Envoy to the Middle East. In Trump’s view, since Witkoff is Jewish — and some people in the Middle East are also Jewish — it’s a perfect fit.
Presumably, Witkoff’s job is to bring about peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, end the war between Israel and Hamas, and lay the groundwork for Trump’s masterplan to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East.
Since the start of the administration, Witkoff has also taken the lead in finding peace between Russia and Ukraine. On this front he has shown himself to be dangerously naive and a stooge for Russian President Putin. He believes anything Putin says and repeats it as fact.
Over the last two weeks, Witkoff has taken the lead in talks to bring an end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. His growing portfolio includes all the hotspots that could be the starting point for World War III.
Whenever Witkoff shows up on the world stage as Trump’s chief negotiator, he under-cuts the work of the State Department and Rubio. The message it sends is that Rubio has no authority and is not in charge of foreign policy.
There is no sign Witkoff is meeting with any success anywhere. His mere presence as a shadow cabinet member under-cuts U.S. foreign policy at least as much as the international students Rubio is tossing out of the country. Witkoff should immediately resign.
Peter Navarro, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick. Led by Navarro, this trio of economic advisors has done severe damage to the U.S. economy, the world order, and America’s economic dominance by pushing Trump’s tariffs.
If your 401K plan has dipped dramatically in recent weeks, these guys did that.
Navarro appears to be the true believer in the bunch, but Bessent and Lutnick are just as responsible and guilty of the aggravating offense of advocating for flawed policy when they know better. This is a widespread sin within the administration: The willingness of those who serve in Trump’s cabinet to go along with all the boss’s bad ideas and whims.
Since they cannot give honest advice, since they cannot talk truth to power, they should resign.
Linda McMahon. As a base requirement, the secretary of education should be able to demonstrate that she is well-versed in the subject. She has not. During her confirmation hearings, when asked about details of education policies her go-to answer was, when I am confirmed “I am eager to look into that” and learn more about it.
Last week, at a conference on artificial intelligence(AI), McMahon referred to AI as A1 — like the steak sauce. I am not one to end someone’s career based on a verbal slip-up, but there is little reason to believe in McMahon’s case that her understanding of A1 is a slip-up. Her only experience in education was time on a state school board in Connecticut that she got because of her role in Republican politics, not her expertise.
She took this job knowing that her mission is to eliminate the department she leads. She should get to the end of the story now and resign.
Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller. As White House Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, Wiles and Miller, are the ones who are supposed to stop the president from following through on his worst instincts. That’s a big job since most of his instincts are bad.
Wiles, is respected within Republican political circles as a professional, but her willingness to help Trump win re-election and her willingness to sit on top his wrecking ball of an administration disqualifies her for the role of chief staff. The truth is that at this point in the history of Trump, there is no justification for anyone to believe that a professional person with the best of intentions can have any positive effect in the Trump White House. Adults in the room are not welcome and anyone who wishes to play that role is deluding themselves. She should resign.
Miller can never be considered an adult in the room. He has been on an anti-immigration crusade for his entire career. His fingerprints are all over the most cruel aspects of Trump’s immigration policies. He does not hide it. He is proud of it. He is unethical. He is intellectually dishonest. He had no problem standing before the press in the Oval Office and lying about the meaning of a recent Supreme Court decision that went against the administration 9–0.
At the White House, especially this White House, titles don’t mean as much as proximity to power. It is fair to say Miller is not playing the traditional role of deputy chief of staff. He is there to make good on Trump’s promise to deport millions of people who came to this country to better themselves, and in most cases, make our country a better place. Miller has for years been talking about using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove immigrants from the country without due process. He is at the head of the current controversy that has the country in a constitutional crisis. For these reasons, and many others, he should immediately resign.
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This is an incomplete list of people who should not be serving in the highest levels of government in the United States, but it is an important start.
The second Trump administration has been built on the concept of loyalty to Trump over loyalty to the country. There is no world in which someone who would accept the privilege of government service on those terms is qualified to serve. That of course would include the man himself.
For more writing on politics, public affairs, public relations, and journalism; follow Dean Pagani at Media Attaché on Substack.
