Only 4 members of Trump’s former cabinet support his 2024 candidacy

Jun 08, 2023

By Steve Benen

Members of a White House cabinet have a unique perspective on an American presidency. After a president chooses them for their powerful positions, these cabinet officials routinely work closely with the man behind the desk in the Oval Office, learning first-hand how a president thinks, works, prioritizes, processes information, and leads.

With this in mind, it’s extraordinary — and historically unprecedented — to see just how many members of Donald Trump’s cabinet can now barely contain their contempt for him. NBC News did a terrific job adding a quantifiable dimension to this.

Donald Trump may have put them in the most powerful and prestigious jobs many will ever hold, but few who worked in his Cabinet are rushing to endorse him in his bid to return to the White House. NBC News reached out to 44 of the dozens of people who served in Trump’s Cabinet over his term in office. Most declined to comment or ignored the requests. A total of four have said publicly they support his run for re-election.

To be sure, the list does not fall neatly along distinct lines, with one group of former cabinet members explicitly denouncing Trump and another endorsing him. As NBC News found, some who served on the former president’s team don’t want to talk about election 2024 preferences, and others offered ambiguous responses.

That said, there is a picture coming into sharper focus, and it’s not a pretty one for the Republican Party’s 2024 frontrunner.

The contingent of former members of Trump’s cabinet who appear to loathe their former boss is enormous. As recently as June, for example, one of his former Defense secretaries went so far as to publicly characterize Trump as a threat to national security — which came on the heels of the same former Pentagon chief agreeing that Trump represents “a threat to democracy” and is “unfit for office.”

But what about the four-member faction that actually wants to see the Republican win a second term? NBC News’ report added:

Those backing Trump’s bid for another term include former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker; Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff; former budget chief Russell Vought; and former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell.

This list might seem unremarkable at first blush, but it’s worth emphasizing for context that Whitaker only led the Justice Department for a few months, and Grenell also served as acting DNI for a few months. Both were acting members of the cabinet, filling in before Senate-confirmed officials filled the posts.

In other words, we can count the number of former cabinet officials supporting Trump’s 2024 bid on one hand, with a finger to spare, and half the list only served in their positions in acting capacity for three months each.

Many of those who really got to know the former president, and who worked alongside him for a longer period of time, want to keep him out of power.

This remains a point of interest for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s an unprecedented dynamic that the former president and his allies have struggled to explain away.

But I’m also interested in the question of what might persuade voters inclined to support Trump to change their minds. Who, if anyone, will they listen to?

Clearly, these voters will not be persuaded by pundits. Or lawmakers. Or historians. Or prosecutors. Or committee reports. Or special council investigations.

But perhaps they’ll consider listening to those who worked side by side with Trump, and who are now warning the public that he’s a menace?

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."