It’s no secret that Donald Trump, in his first term as president, felt stymied by cabinet secretaries and other political appointees who occasionally disagreed with his whims. Consequently, that first term saw a parade of high level appointees, including Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, unceremoniously shown the door.

Determined to eliminate these human guardrails his second time around, Trump has ramped up his insistence on absolute loyalty — often to the exclusion of other qualities like merit, experience, honesty and accountability. Think Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense (or war, as he prefers), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services and Kash Patel as director of the FBI, to nam

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