The CabinetUntil now, the focus of turnover has been on the White House team, but what about the people who are actually running the country? The Cabinet has been extremely stable so far. Tom Price lost his job as Secretary of Health over treating government flights as personal taxis, but that has been all. Now, Trump's attention has turned to the Cabinet and a reshuffle is expected. Tillerson is out and several Secretaries are in the firing line, some for underwhelming performance and some for minor scandals. Half of Trump's appointees took up their jobs as opponents of what their Department had previously been doing and have set about dismantling it. Tillerson's destruction of State has been high-profile, but others have kept more under the radar, while doing much the same to their administrations. By coincidence, all those in danger (and the two who have gone) are amongst those who arrived at their jobs with a negative view of their Dept.
In DangerJeff Sessions - Attorney GeneralOn borrowed time for almost a year now.
David Shulkin - Veteran AffairsShulkin was already in ethics trouble over a ten-day trip to Europe, when he spent 3½ days in meetings and the rest sightseeing (with his wife, who was also paid for by public funds). Then he and his staff tried to cover it up and misled investigators.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/veterans-affairs-chief-shulkin-staff-misled-ethics-officials-about-european-trip-report-finds/2018/02/14/f7fbc020-0c3a-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.6ba2ec73896eNow there are allegations that he had took one of his security to Home Depot and had him hump his purchases into his house.
Shulkin has been under attack from numerous sources within the White House and in Congress, but had the support of Trump, who believes that there are systemic problems at the VA. Now his position is weakened and Trump is said to have sounded out Rick Perry about switching from Energy.
Betsy DeVos - EducationDeVos has changed the school system in Michigan, and many think not for the better. Her credo includes diverting funds from under-performing schools to better-performing ones. She now wants to do the same nationwide.
She turned up unprepared for her confirmation hearing and ended up being a laughing stock. Having barely got away with that (the Senate split 50-50 and the Vice-President had to give the casting vote for the first time in history), she did the same for a high-profile interview with Lesley Stahl last week on '60 Minutes'.
Betsy's family has donated $200m to the Republican Party over the years, including $1m in 2016 to Senators who subsequently voted for her nomination. She has Trump's support (maybe because of the donations) but surely she can't survive too many of these.
Ryan Zinke - InteriorHe started off on the right foot - reducing the size of some National Monuments by up to 80%, reducing the number of activities banned in National Parks (eg the ban on using lead bullets for hunting), allowing mining and drilling on federal lands, that sort of thing. He installed a deer-hunting game machine in the staff cafe to educate them about hunting. A trophy hunter himself, Zinke persuaded Trump to lift the ban on imports of elephant trophies.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/22/the-damage-done-by-trumps-department-of-the-interiorThen it started to go wrong. After public pressure, Trump put the elephant thing on hold. News started coming out that Zinke was another who has been spending large amounts treating government planes as his own playthings. His position is definitely weaker, but he'll probably be kept on a while longer.
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Ben Carson - Housing and Urban DevelopmentCarson had been quietly destroying HUD but has run into trouble over furniture for his office, which cost $31k. The Dept issued a statement that it had been ordered by career staff without Ben's knowledge, but an email has emerged from just before the purchase showing that Mrs Carson had chosen the pieces.
Steve Mnuchin - TreasuryMnuchin is used to being vilified. He was a banker who foreclosed the mortgages of thousands of poor people. He fronted out the confirmation hearings, including the disclosure that he had kicked an 90-year-old widow out of her home over a debt of 27 cents (she owed 30 cents, but mistakenly sent a cheque for 3 cents and they seized the opportunity).
Since taking office, his main detriment has been his new wife's penchant for showing off their wealth.
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When she got called out on this, she asked the person whether they had contributed more in taxes than her and her husband.
This was followed by photos of the two of them looking like Bond villains when the first dollar bills with his signature were printed, the only thing missing being one of them lighting the dollars with a cigar.
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However, his performance in office has been what you would expect, the highlight being the tax cuts. He'll be safe.
Safe:James Mattis, Defence
Elaine Chao, Transportation
Kirstjen Nielsen, Homeland Security
Alex Azar, Health
Rick Perry, Energy
Alexander Acosta, Labor
Wilbur Ross, Commerce (despite dozing off in meetings)
Sonny Perdue, Agriculture
Mike Pompeo, State
Other Cabinet Level PositionsIn DangerJohn Kelly - Chief of StaffPreviously Trump's superstar, Donald seems to have tired of him. It's anyone's guess whether he stays on.
Scott Pruitt - Environmental Protection AgencyAs Attorney General of Oklahoma, Pruitt was suing the EPA over climate protection rules when the call came, an action that is still in process. He impressed by rolling back lots of Obama environmental regs in quick time, but has got caught up in expenses problems. Will probably be kept on.
Gina Haspel - CIAHaspel has been nominated from within the organization, which usually goes down well with Congress, but her confirmation is by no means a shoo-in, due to her history of running facilities where torture occurred and her role in destroying interrogation tapes. Rand Paul called her "the head cheerleader for waterboarding" and is voting against. The American Civil Liberties Union called her "quite literally a war criminal."
SafeNikki Haley, United Nations
Mick Mulvaney, Budget
Linda McMahon, Small Business
Dan Coats, National Intelligence
Robert Lighthizer, Trade Representative https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/12/16705548/robert-lighthizer-trump-trade-nafta-wto-china
Trump is surprisingly intolerant of his team using public funds for their own benefit. Kelly read the Riot Act to four of them a couple of weeks ago over this (Shulkin, Carson, Zinke & Pruitt). My guess would be that Shulkin and Carson will be out. Maybe Pruitt. DeVos should go, but her family is possibly the biggest Republican donor in history, so she may stay. It's amazing that Sessions isn't already gone, so maybe he'll hang on too. I wouldn't be surprised if Haspel's nomination is withdrawn.
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