Is Hegseth Headed for the Exit? Many in Trump’s Cabinet would fail a performance review Dan Rather and Team Steady Apr 21 Credit: Getty Images If Pete Hegseth headed the Department of the Interior instead of our nation’s military, we’d probably be writing about something else today. Hegseth might … might be able to deal with, say, national parks. But as secretary of defense, he is a disaster. As has rightly been said before, about so much of what our president has done: This situation would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous. Hegseth is again living up to his low billing as defense secretary, after it was revealed by The New York Times that he posted battle strike plans in a second unsecured group chat. So this is a good time to conduct a mid-year review of Hegseth’s job performance and that of some of his fellow Cabinet members. Hegseth was an outside-the-box pick for defense secretary. Like many members of Trump’s inner circle, he hails from Fox “News.” As a weekend television host, he was best known for being an unassailable Trump super loyalist. While Hegseth did serve in the military, he has had no real leadership experience. He simply is not qualified to be running a department of almost 3 million people. But he fits well into Trump’s objective to politicize the military. Once again, Hegseth posted operational details on the unsecured app Signal, including the flight schedules of F/A-18 Hornets targeting Houthis in Yemen — the same information he posted in another Signal group chat, created by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. But this new group was created by Hegseth himself, using his personal phone number. The group, dubbed “Defense | Team Huddle,” included his wife, who was once a producer at Fox and does not work at the Pentagon, along with Hegseth’s brother and personal lawyer, both of whom he hired to work at DoD, neither in combat operations. At today’s annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Trump praised his defense secretary, saying, “Pete’s doing a great job.” But before Hegseth gets too comfortable, be reminded of this example from the sports world: When a coach loses a big game, he is often given a public show of support by the front office, just before he’s shown the door. The president’s “atta boy” comes just a day after Trump loyalist and former Pentagon spokesperson (he quit last week) John Ullyot wrote a scathing opinion piece for Politico about his former workplace and boss. “It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote. The calls for Hegseth’s firing have come from both sides of the aisle. Republican congressman and House Armed Services Committee member Don Bacon today called Hegseth an “amateur,” suggesting he should be let go. And Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth told The Times, “Every day he stays in his job is another day our troops’ lives are endangered by his singular stupidity.” Hegseth is not alone in needing a performance review. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is in charge of making and keeping us all healthy, has also had a doozy of a start. First, he has yet to contain a measles outbreak that began in January. The vaccine skeptic has not consistently nor forcefully endorsed the measles vaccine as the best way to prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease, though he has touted unproven treatments for it. Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 800 measles cases in 25 states. Three unvaccinated people have died, including two children in Texas, the outbreak’s epicenter. Kennedy’s priorities are questionable. He met with and praised Ben Edwards, a doctor treating measles patients in Texas, calling him an “extraordinary” healer. This just a week after an online video showed Edwards not wearing a mask and with the measles rash on his face as he was seeing patients. Edwards confirmed he had contracted the disease. Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit founded by Kennedy, posted the video of Dr. Edwards. Last week CHD was made to take down a website it had created that looked identical to the CDC’s except that it claimed vaccines cause autism. Which brings us to another of Kennedy’s dubious decisions: his relentless obsession with autism and the unrealistic promise that he will determine its “cause” by September. “We’re gonna announce a series of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing it. This has not been done before,” Kennedy said in a news conference. Pay no mind to the fact that researchers have been working on this subject for decades. In fact, many medical experts don’t accept his characterization of autism as a disease. According to immunologist Andrea Love, “autism is a non-communicable, neurodevelopmental condition” with “a spectrum of presentations and a range of symptoms.” The distinction is important for reasons of both science and societal stigma. Kennedy has also hired David Geier as a data analyst to look at the potential links between autism and mercury in vaccines. Again, this has been studied and debunked. What is especially concerning is that Geier, who was previously charged with practicing medicine without a license, is an avowed anti-vaxxer who has spent much of his career claiming that vaccines cause autism. When September rolls around, is there any doubt about what Kennedy and Co. will claim causes autism? The further erosion of vaccine confidence is the last thing this country needs right now — as the avian flu jumps from mammal to mammal, including humans, and the Trump administration cuts off funding for final testing of a vaccine. Some scientists say this could be worse than the COVID pandemic. And then there is Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general. The Justice Department is supposed to be an independent agency, but with Bondi at the helm, the lines between the White House and DOJ are beyond blurred. Bondi was recently asked, on Fox News of all places, if it is illegal to deport native-born American citizens. The answer is, of course, yes. Full stop. She refused to say so. Her priority is not the Constitution but keeping Trump happy. A Trump protest sign making the rounds sums it up perfectly: “We have seen better cabinets at Ikea.” In all seriousness, this is what happens when people are chosen for their loyalty to Trump rather than their loyalty to the country and qualifications for the job. To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all. Thank you.