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There was an oddball shuffle in Donald Trump’s Cabinet on Thursday: The president fired Michael Waltz as national security adviser, then nominated him to be United Nations ambassador, and tapped Marco Rubio to fill Waltz’s old seat, even though he still holds three other positions, including secretary of state. These moves raise the question: Does Trump know more than two people capable of running foreign policy?

Maybe not, but more relevant are two other facts. First, there aren’t likely many more than two such people who would want to take a senior job with this clown show of an administration. Second, Trump is the only one truly running U.S. foreign policy, so in his mind, it doesn’t matter who’s holding which eminent titles, as long as they do what they’re told and don’t cast much shadow (which is one reason why few people of any talent are available).

Waltz is a case in point. He was clearly washing out in his White House job, on several grounds: too hawkish toward Russia for Trump’s taste; a security risk, owing to his repeated practice of holding sensitive conversations on Signal; and his bureaucratic ineptitude, as seen by his alienation of Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, who had stopped so much as talking with him some time ago.

These were all plausible reasons for his dismissal. Then came his simultaneous elevation/demotion to the U.N., a vacant slot since Trump pulled his first nominee for the job, Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, of New York, after realizing that her seat’s likely loss to a Democrat in the next election could cost his party control of the House. Why replace her with the discredited Waltz? Maybe to preempt an early tell-all memoir. Certainly because Trump regards the U.N. (and most other international organizations) as a wasteland.

Some might wonder whether Rubio—at 53 a two-term senator with no executive experience—will be loaded with too many responsibilities. Henry Kissinger served a term under Richard Nixon as secretary of state and national security adviser; Rubio will hold those titles as well as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration.

The question nearly answers itself. First, Rubio is no Kissinger, for better (few signs that he’s an incipient war criminal) or for worse (few signs that he’s capable of such feats as opening China or making peace through shuttle diplomacy). Second, USAID has been all but destroyed (recall, it was the first agency that Elon Musk’s tech team fed to the “wood chipper”), the archives’ budget is on a sharp slide as well, and Trump has proposed cutting even State’s budget in half, with many of its functions and embassies eliminated.

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Getting Waltz’s old job at least gives Rubio something to do. The national security adviser sets agendas, runs interagency meetings, and works just steps away from the Oval Office. Then again, before he gets too presumptuous, “little Marco” (as Trump once nicknamed him when they were primary rivals) should note that his new title is preceded by the word interim (so no point in getting too comfortable)—and that, regardless of formalities, Trump sees himself as the only person in charge and the only person who needs to be in charge.

Which leads back to the question of who would want any high-profile job in this administration. Take another look at the picture of Rubio sinking into the sofa as Trump and Vice President JD Vance took turns yelling at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had come to have lunch and sign a minerals treaty before getting booted out of the building. The image gives you some indication of how most people, in their right minds, would feel in any meeting with this crew. Or watch one of the Cabinet meetings (broadcast live to ensure that nothing important gets discussed), in which each secretary is called upon to outdo the others at praising Trump for his glorious achievements, thus fulfilling Trump’s fantasy of being hailed the way North Korean masses treat Kim Jong-un.


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Who would want their reputations, future job prospects, and obituaries—or, for that matter, their everyday faces in the mirror—tarnished by such indignities, other than those who don’t regard the experience as an indignity?

Nor do there seem to be compensatory features to the job. President Lyndon Johnson was known to humiliate subordinates by talking to them while sitting on the toilet, with the door wide open—but at least, in many cases, the subordinates walked away with a meaningful task assigned. I doubt Trump would ever pull that sort of stunt, but he doesn’t give factotums a sense of meaning. Staff, even those with relevant expertise, are ignored. (Who, after all, could have more expertise, on just about any subject, than Donald J. Trump?) Corridors are emptying out, and for those failing to get the message, more mass firings are reportedly pending.

The shufflings are irrelevant. The job titles are irrelevant. This isn’t the Trump administration; it’s the Trump monarchy—at least, that’s the way he and his loyal-above-all-else entourage view it.