Besides the ill-defined Iranian war, DOJ-FBI created the Epstein file debacle, tariff fiasco, Venezuela, Ecuador, Greenland, and Cuba interventions, special elections turning in Democrats’ favor, and the ever-increasing cost for gasoline, health care, mortgages, rent, prescription drugs, food, clothing, natural gas, electricity, and Agri-fertilizer, President Trump has other problems.
YouGov polling reveals that nearly all of Trump’s second-term political appointees are net-unpopular. Let’s examine six of Trump’s most troubling appointees.
Kristi Noem
Fifty-two GOP and seven Democratic senators confirmed Kristi Noem’s appointment to serve as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary. After Noem gutted FEMA, received hundreds of court orders for unconstitutional immigration actions, spent $220 million for self-promoting DHS ads, and her ICE agents killed two citizens in Minnesota and one resident in Texas, Mr. Trump had seen enough and on March 5 told Noem, “You’re fired.”
Pete Hegseth
Mr. Hegseth’s tenure as Secretary of Defense commenced unfavorably when a journalist and several unauthorized individuals were included in a Signal chat where details about immigrant strikes on Houthi targets were revealed. Hegseth’s mismanagement is under investigation by the Pentagon.
Gerard Baker, a journalist for the conservative-oriented Wall Street Journal, criticized Hegseth in a March 10 essay where Baker described Hegseth’s Iran wartime oratory language as “cringe-making … `death and destruction from the sky all day long’ is the sort that would be rejected by the cartoonists at Marvel Comics.”
On March 13, Hegseth said of the Iran war, “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” (the refusal to take prisoners and execute everyone), which violates international law and the 1966 War Crimes Act; a serious red flag.
Currently, only 29% of citizens feel Hegseth should remain in office (Truthout).
Pam Bondi
As Trump’s attorney general, Ms. Bondi fired the Department of Justice’s top ethics adviser. Bondi then fired the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates DOJ attorney misconduct. Bondi did not fill either position. Legal experts and former judges say the DOJ is now an “ethics-free workplace” (Liz Oyer, March 5).
Despite a December 2025 legal deadline requiring the release of all Epstein files, lawmakers maintain that around 50% of the files remain unreleased (ABC News). It’s not surprising that a March 2026 poll revealed only 22% of Americans believe she should remain in office (Truthout).
RFK Jr’s leadership of the Health and Human Services agency has created turmoil through a series of anti-medical science decisions from issues related to children’s vaccines, mental health grants, fluoridated water, anti-vaccine advisory board, and autism holocaust. A front page headline from March 14-15’s Wall Street Journal spoke volumes: White House puts RFK on tight leash.
Kash Patel
Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director has been marked by multiple high-profile controversies, centering on the politicization of the bureau, personnel vendettas, public misstatements, the erosion of institutional norms, the use of FBI resources for personal conduct, strains with foreign intelligence partners, and the handling of the Charlie Kirk assassination investigation.
A Feb. 17 Rasmussen Report notes low morale exists among current and former FBI employees. 66% of Americans have unfavorable or very unfavorable opinions of Mr. Patel.
Stephen Miller
Mr. Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, has been a central figure in the Trump administration’s far-right, populist, pro-tariff, and anti-immigration policies (Parmar & Furse; Nagel; Bose; and Apel). In 2021, Jean Guerrero, an American investigative journalist, characterized Miller as a white nationalist.
As of Jan. 27, 2026, YouGov polling found that only 17% of respondents have a positive impression of Miller.
Brendan Carr
When Mr. Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened to revoke broadcast licenses for ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, and PBS for being critical of President Trump, freedom of the press and civil liberty groups came unglued.
Suspending Jimmy Kimmel’s show from ABC and cancelling Stephen Colbert’s `The Late Show’ were too much for Americans. Mess with Americans’ TV and here’s the result: only 19% of Americans have a positive opinion of Mr. Carr (Quinnipiac poll).
Reality and Resolve
In an essay I opined, titled `Best and Worse U.S. Presidential Cabinets Ranked: What the Research Reveals,’ published Sept. 3, 2025 in The Fulcrum, research revealed Mr. Trump’s first- and second-term cabinets were the worst in US history, citing his “cabinets have been widely criticized for their lack of qualifications … appointments based on loyalty over capability … and poorly vetted appointees ….”
With over $1 billion in taxpayer funds spent – every year- to keep the Senate operating, we should expect better-vetted, approved presidential appointees.
Let your two Senators know how disappointed you are in their role in permitting Hegseth, Bondi, RFK Jr., Patel, Miller, and Carr to remain on the taxpayer’s payroll while Trump’s appointees are irresponsibly serving their 348 million American constituents. Senators’ and citizens’ silence effectively endorses the status quo.
Americans’ sentiment is clear. Mr. Trump: Say it again six more times, “you’re fired!”
Steve Corbin is a professor emeritus of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a non-paid freelance guest columnist contributor to 158 newspapers and 47 social media platforms in 44 states
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.