"I promised that I'd ask for our country's best and brightest, and we have that," Trump said Feb. 2017. Since then, half of his cabinet has been fired or resigned.
CNN's Chris Cuomo mocked the president for another broken promise as he launches his 2020 reelection with the slogan "promises made, promises kept."
"Instead, he assembled, by most accounts, a weak team and then shed the strongest members, Gen. James Mattis, one of the most revered Marines in a generation. Rex Tillerson, four-decades running at one of the biggest global corporations. Jeff Sessions, 20-year career in the Senate. Names like John Kelly, Don McGahn, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, Dina Powell, H.R. McMaster, Ty Cobb, Kirstjen Nielsen. All generated respect in Washington."
Now, however, the list of former Trump advisors or cabinet officials is enough to fill an entire administration. According to Cuomo, almost half of the cabinet-level positions have been ousted in just two years. But it's the latest cuts that have many concerned.
"He scares off or scorns anyone of actual talent, he can't fill a lot of underlying positions because no one is in charge long enough to staff them up," the host said. "It's really a problem trying to find anyone of real substance to want to work for this president and as a result, he is left with the exception of, you know, a few talented folks near the top with hangers-on, and his kids."
Jared Kushner can't get a security clearance, Cuomo said, but somehow he's a "legit choice to figure out Middle East peace and now immigration." Kushner needed a primer just to understand how the government worked to begin with. Countering Kushner is Stephen Miller, who has ties to bigoted groups.
"This isn't the brightest nor the best," Cuomo said.
"He added his own alligators to a swamp that's more fetid than ever," Cuomo said. "And the part that must concern us is why. With any president, this would be alarming. These men, no matter how gifted or how much hype they need greatness around them. A mix of old hands, new stars, all of them working like crazy and knowing what pitches to expect, which ones to swing at and where the ball tends to go."
"Good teams make great leaders," Cuomo said. "But with this president, the need is greater than I've seen for support. And it is the dynamite mix of ignorance and arrogance, on his part, that has us in this predicament."
Cuomo also noted that he's never heard anyone say before that the quote on the Statue of Liberty is nothing more than a poem. Now, however, Trump's supporters are calling it nothing more than a poem and not a law or policy.
Watch the full commentary below:
Bill Maher explaining the results of the UN's happiness report (screengrab)[/caption]