U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

New Republic writer Ross Rosenfeld said President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks keep making the Republican senators who approved them “look like chumps.”

“Perhaps no one proved more gullible than Susan Collins of Maine,” said Rosenfeld.

In a hearing in late January, Collins pressed Health and Human Services appointee Robert Kennedy about whether he’d limit access to vaccines or impede research at the National Institutes of Health. The Maine Republican reminded him of his quotes boasting that he would “give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” She then believed him when he claimed “We need good science and I’m going to bring that in.” When she asked him if he’d impede research into a potential vaccine for Lyme disease — like an anti-vax conspiracy theorist might — Kennedy assured her “There’s nobody who will fight harder to find a vaccine or a treatment for Lyme disease than me.”

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Collins bought it and later voted to confirm him as HHS secretary.

“Yet since that time, [Kennedy] has … severely restricted access to the Covid-19 vaccine; canceled $500 million in vaccine research, including nixing vital mRNA research, some of which would have gone toward a potential Lyme disease cure,” said Rosenfeld, adding that Kennedy also “fired everyone on the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices” and convinced Trump to oust Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, “because she refused to fire senior CDC leadership and rubber-stamp Kennedy’s plans to restrict vaccine access.”

Rosenfeld said Collins has responded with “the typical Republican deflection,” saying she was “alarmed” that Monarez had been fired and calling for more congressional oversight.

Kennedy similarly promised Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that he would work to keep rural hospitals open and funded before defending Trump’s budget law cutting $58 billion to $137 billion in cuts from those hospitals.

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“Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was another RFK dupe,” said Rosenfeld. “Like Collins, he based his confirmation vote largely on Kennedy’s promise that he would not hamper vaccine distribution or research. Following Kennedy’s dismissal of the vaccine panel and the firing of Monarez, Cassidy has done nothing but merely suggest that there be oversight by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee."

An established Republican tactic, according to Rosenfeld, appears to be: Question a controversial nominee about their past statements and actions; solicit reassurances that provide cover to vote for the nominee’s confirmation; act surprised when the confirmed official does exactly what everyone feared; and then give the press a tepid quote in response — or say nothing at all.

Rosenfeld said they apply this tactic to other backsliding Trump appointees, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

But to avoid “antagonizing King Donald,” Rosenfeld said the senators act the role of the independent while being “ready to believe any tale they’re told, either because they’re that willing or that stupid — or perhaps both.”

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Read the New Republic report at this link.