I Miss the “Adults in the Room” From Trump’s First Term

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist who now leads the Department of Health and Human Services, may have irreparably harmed the nation’s ability to develop new treatments, track diseases, and fight pandemics. Last week, he pushed out the head of the CDC after she moved to accept vaccine guidelines issued by a panel of experts, rather than those from Kennedy himself. HHS then issued new eligibility recommendations for the Covid booster shot, severely restricting those who could get it. It is impossible to imagine Alex Azar, who served in the same position during Trump’s first term, doing any of this. Five years after Trump oversaw Operation Warp Speed—the only unqualified success of his first term, which lived up to its name by developing a Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year—the nation is on the brink of returning to the Dark Ages: Kennedy’s vision of the country is one where only the strong survive and immunity comes from contracting diseases, not taking vaccines.

The one member of Trump’s Cabinet who seemed like he could emerge as an “adult”—Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose appointment was praised by many who fretted over the direction of the administration—has shown no inclination whatsoever toward moderating the president’s impulses. He has overseen a foreign policy that is reckless, bellicose, and clearly undertaken in service of Trump’s personal ambition to win a Nobel Peace Prize rather than any strategic interest. As famine spreads in Gaza and America’s support for Ukraine seesaws between tempered support and complete disdain, Rubio has consistently stood behind the president. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, he harbors ambitions to succeed him.) That’s in contrast to Rex Tillerson, who routinely butted heads with Trump, smoothed over relations with miffed foreign leaders, and reportedly told other members of his national security team that Trump was a “moron.”

There is, however, one adult left: Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve. Powell was first appointed by Trump back in 2018, but the president quickly came to regret it. Trump spent much of his first term badmouthing Powell and has targeted him throughout his second, all because Powell has refused to slash interest rates, as Trump desires. Powell is doing this because, well, he’s an “adult”: Given the persistent problem of inflation, cutting interest rates carries enormous risk. Powell is holding the line, and his firing, which legal experts say would not pass muster, could cause the markets to tank. Trump may do it anyways—and Republicans and the conservative justices on the Supreme Court will likely sit idly by.