Every so often, Donald Trump will convene his closest advisers at the White House and smile as they lick his boots to a mirror shine. These Cabinet meetings are effectively televised devotionals to the president’s greatness, with his appointees taking turns lauding him shamelessly. Attorney General Pam Bondi went so far as to credit Trump with saving the lives of 75 percent of America’s population, during a Cabinet meeting back in April.
Trump held another Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. It was no different, with the table full of lackeys dutifully praising Trump for rescuing the United States from the brink of destruction. The spectacle lasted over three hours as Trump fielded questions from the congregated media. The adulation clearly went to his head. “I have the right to do anything I want to do,” he said of sending federal troops into cities. “I’m the president of the United States.
Here are some of the most shameless examples from Tuesday’s roundtable of the Trump sycophants running the government praising their leader:
Tulsi Gabbard: Director of National Intelligence
“This is just such a great opportunity, really, to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people. … I know we’ll hear, as we go around the table here, how your focus singularly on putting the well being and interests of the American people first is that common thread that we’re seeing your policies being implemented across your administration.”
Gabbard has spent the better part of the summer attempting to redirect public attention away from the administration’s bungling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, and towards conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama and the 2016 election. Trump rewarded Gabbard’s efforts with praise of his own, congratulating her on “becoming a bigger and bigger star every day” within his administration.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Secretary of Labor
“Mr. President, I invite you to see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor — because you are the transformational president of the American worker, along with the American flag and President Roosevelt …and I was so honored to unveil that yesterday.”
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer was referencing a literal banner of Trump’s face that has been hung on the facade of the headquarters of her department, alongside a similar banner depicting former President Theodore Roosevelt. Both banners carry the slogan “American Workers First.”
Steve Witkoff: Special Envoy to the Middle East
“There is only one thing I wish for: that the Nobel Committee finally gets its act together and realizes you are the single finest candidate since this Nobel award was ever talked about to receive that award. Beyond your success, is game changing out in the world today, and I hope one day everyone wakes up and realizes that.”
Witkoff, not technically a Cabinet member but still invited to the party, later told the president that “working for this government – for you – is the greatest honor of my life,” and praised Trump for supposedly ending “more than seven” international conflicts in the last eight months, although what those conflicts were was left unspecified.
Kristi Noem: Secretary of Homeland Security
“First of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. You made this country safe. You opened up the economy. You enforce the law. Now people can get up and provide for their families and go to work every day and be confident in that.”
Noem repeatedly praised Trump for a supposed wholesale transformation of the American economy towards unbound prosperity and safety, never mind that the president recently fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for reporting stagnating economic and labor growth in their monthly report.
Brook Rollins: Secretary of Agriculture
“Thank you for saving college football, by the way. We’re very grateful.”
Was college football in such a precarious position that it required saving? No. Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order requiring universities to preserve and expand scholarships for women and Olympic athletes at the collegiate level, as well as reform pay-for-play structure out of college sports.
Scott Bessent: Secretary of the Treasury
“As we’ve said very often, economic security is national security, and our country has never been so secure, thanks to you. You have brought us back from the edge. You have the overwhelming mandate from the American people. You are restoring confidence in government.”
Bessent said that one of the primary ways Trump is restoring trust in the government is by trying to take control of the historically independent Federal Reserve. The president a day earlier attempted to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, a nakedly illegitimate action with no legal basis. Cook’s lawyer said Tuesday that she is not leaving her post and will sue over the move.
Marco Rubio: Secretary of State
“You were elected the president of working Americans and that’s why this Labor Day is so meaningful — that’s why this is the most meaningful Labor Day of my life, as someone with four jobs.
Trump has been gutting the government since he took office in January and installing loyalists in key positions, which is why Rubio is not only the Secretary of State, but the head of the National Archives, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Trump’s National Security Adviser. Rubio on Tuesday went on to tout Trump’s leadership, describing him as the “Peacemaker in Chief.”
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