Trump Goes on a Firing Spree || Peter Zeihan

TL;DR

Trump's cabinet firings reflect not incompetence concerns but personal grievances, and replacements will be no better given the GOP's hollowed-out talent pool.

Key Points

• 1.Trump fires based on personal loyalty, not performance. He cycled through more cabinet secretaries than any three prior presidents combined in his first term, then purged the GOP's recruitment and research arms so no independent experts could challenge him.
• 2.Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi are already gone. Noem was moved to a pointless summit role; Bondi was dismissed because she recognized Trump's political prosecutions had no factual basis and slowed them, failing to deliver the vengeance Trump demanded.
• 3.Howard Lutnik at Commerce is implicated in tariff-access corruption. His family allegedly sells personal exemptions from the tariff list; over 7,000 tariff policy changes have caused industrial construction spending to fall below even COVID-era levels, excluding data centers.
• 4.RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Cash Patel face dismissal for political rather than competence reasons. RFK is siphoning MAGA oxygen; Gabbard angered Trump by truthfully telling Congress Iran isn't closer to a bomb; Patel can't prosecute Trump's enemies because there's no factual basis for the cases.
• 5.Pete Hegseth is Trump's likely Iran-war scapegoat. He self-described as the least qualified defense secretary ever, hasn't appointed a chief of staff in 14 months, purged women and minorities from promotions, fired the Army chief of staff and chief chaplain, and is now using crusader language while the Iran war underperforms.
• 6.The broader collapse is structural and worsening. The business community — a Republican coalition pillar since the Depression — is abandoning Trump; a handful of Senate Republicans are stalling new confirmations; and with chief of staff Susie Wiles sidelined by breast cancer, there is no adult left managing Trump's behavior.