The security of the US grows weaker by the day as some of the highest-profile members of Donald Trump’s cabinet are spending too much time playing to the MAGA crowd for “clicks’ and adulation, and not taking their jobs seriously.
Appearing on MS NOW with host Ali Velshi, former Naval College professor Tom Nichols, who has called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s immediate firing, added DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel to his list of the worst offenders in Trump’s rogues’ gallery of officials.
Coming as Hegseth and Noem are running into trouble with lawmakers and the courts, host Velshi called what is going on within the administration “a mess" based upon recent reports of inner turmoil and chaos.
“Yeah, this is what happens when you don't actually lead a movement,” Nichols agreed. “I know that the MAGA faithful think of themselves as a movement, as a political force, but in fact it's a cult of personality surrounded by a bunch of very childlike grifters who are acting like kids who've been let loose in a candy store.”
“One of the things that's so striking about all these people is not just how amateurish they are, but how completely unfocused they are. They seem to have no other interest in — when you mention the president's agenda, Ali — who would, who could know what that is? The agenda seems to be line your pockets. Please, Donald Trump, don't get fired. And you know take the private, take the government jet to go see your girlfriend.”
He continued, “One of the things that's so striking in this report is, is how adolescent, how juvenile all three of these examples are. You have someone who is in charge of the Department of Homeland Security, you know, playing cowgirl dress up. You have the FBI director whining, ‘Well, I get to have a girlfriend. I can go see my girlfriend, can't I? I mean, it's so cringe-inducing.”
“And you've got the secretary of defense, you know, acting like a kind of bully who's been put in charge of his high school and just wants to yell at all the teachers and saying things like, ‘I've been exonerated, when in fact he hasn't. The opposite has happened because he's reasoning and arguing like he's about 12. This is really bad,” he added.