Bulwark Takes - Tim and Sam Rank Trump’s Cabinet From Hell

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

Tim Miller and Sam Stein give their takes on the Trump cabinet after a full year of chaos, incompetence, and outright danger. From “livable” appointments to the "worst of the worst" category, they... rank every cabinet member and argue over who did the most damage in 2025. Note: this video was recorded on December 22, 2025. Any horrible acts committed after that have not been factored into the rankings. 

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everybody, Tim Miller from the bulwark here with my colleague, Sam Stein. All year, we've had a little running game. It's kind of a game of horribles, actually, where we have kind of an informal ranking of the Trump cabinet. And so now that we are at the end of the year here, we decided we should get together and really formalize this and compare and contrast our two different lists. Before we do that, before we do that, Sam, there are two things that I need to just discuss real quick, two offense in the room. Number one is we're both wearing T-shirts of colleges that we did not represent. present that we not go to because we like their sports teams number two the commenters have been concerned that we have a tiff uh because they've sniffed out the fact that you disagreed with
Starting point is 00:00:40 my take that people should shout down scott besant if he's gonna have dinner he should not be able to have dinner in peace and people are worried we haven't done a video together for a couple people are worried that we have a tip but that's not what i thought there was the tip was about something else honestly it was i sub tweeted you in one of the videos and i think they put That was even, well, we won't even get into that because that wasn't even a disagreement. It was just a matter of quality. It was a disagreement. It was, no, it was a disagreement.
Starting point is 00:01:09 I thought the Ben Shapiro speech at Amfest was a big deal. And you're like, they've been doing this shit for all year. You felt like it merited an emergency podcast. And I was watching Flores. I was in the moment. Okay. And I was just like, they're all speaking. I'm going to be talking about it all fucking weekend.
Starting point is 00:01:25 It's not an emergency. You're getting me off away from the Nuggets game. or whatever I was doing. That's a mild disagreement of this. I might have been in the middle of parenting my children and putting him to bed and wanting to pass them off to the wife. So I was using that. Maybe, honey, I got to go YouTube with Tim.
Starting point is 00:01:42 Again? Anyway, no issues. No beef. No issues. Although I do disagree with your Scott Besson. That's fine. And the disagreement is healthy. All right.
Starting point is 00:01:51 We're going to go through the cabinet here. Yeah, the whole cabinet. We've created an ad hoc ranking. system, which is, which is livable, L for livable, H for horrifying, D, for, wait, hold on, what's the fuck? No, no, this is this list. Livable, bad, horrifying, and please don't kill me. Oh, we've changed it.
Starting point is 00:02:16 Yeah, I changed it up. Please don't kill me? Yeah, as in, I think you're going to kill me. Please don't do it. Oh, that's your, that's your, that's your RFK alone. I've, no, I've, I've, we've got to fix this. We're going back to your initial list. I have multiple people in the please don't kill me category, but whatever.
Starting point is 00:02:34 I was going to do worst of the worst, but Sam wants to make it, please don't kill me. So worst of the worst or please don't kill me, kind of altogether. Please don't kill me worst of the worst. So once again, livable was the best, bad, disastrous. Worst of the worst, please don't kill me. Those are the four categories. And we go through beginning with the attorney general, Pam Bondi. You started with Bondi, okay.
Starting point is 00:02:59 The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, where do you have her livable, bad, that please don't kill me? Disasterous. Worst or the Please don't kill me. I firmly in the Please Don't Kill Me, obviously. Is there a debate on that? Where do you have her? I was a little tough for that top category.
Starting point is 00:03:19 At the top of the pyramid, I saved the top of the pyramid for really as named the worst of the worst. All right. Make your case for why she's only disastrous. Um, well, I'm curious. Defend Pambandi here. I think Pambandi is disastrous.
Starting point is 00:03:39 She is disastrous. She's been terrible. And yet, when I look at some of the other people on the list here, and I start to think about like, you know, I'm thinking about this pyramid style. Like you only in that top category of worst of the worst,
Starting point is 00:03:52 please don't kill. How many people did you have there? How do you have in that top category? I have a lot. One, two, five, six. Six. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:02 All right. I was trying to be a little more judicious. I only had three in that top category. You're right. A pyramid scheme. I'll put, I'll put Bondi in disastrous. Disaster.
Starting point is 00:04:11 Disaster. As far as you worry, she might kill me. But, yes, fine. Okay. Disasterous for Pam Bondi. All right. Sounds good.
Starting point is 00:04:18 Now we're going to move down to the bottom of the list here. We're just going to kind of mix and match. Sure. We've got Kelly Leffler. I did not realize Kelly Laffer was in the cabinet until he started playing this game. Livable! So very livable.
Starting point is 00:04:31 Livable. Liveable for Kelly, for being totally unnoticed. That's great. One more will kind of with no names. Lee Zeldon, EPA administrator. Ooh.
Starting point is 00:04:41 Where you got him? This is a tough one for me. Yeah, why? You're a greenie. You're a tree owner. Yeah, I'm more of a greenie. He's, I don't think he's going to kill me, but he could. I have him in disastrous.
Starting point is 00:04:54 Disastrous. Really? You have him. I got him in livable. I got a lot of issues with the admin. This is the thing to buy between you and me. I'm sure in the commenters, let me know why Lee's been worse than livable.
Starting point is 00:05:07 I'm open to that feedback. Okay, Jameson Greer, U.S. trade representative, got disastrous for Jameson Greer. I got bad. But my case for bad is that he's just doing the boss's bidding. I don't think he's like, you know, which is bad. Like, let's be real. It's bad what he's doing.
Starting point is 00:05:24 but it's not like, he's not creating disaster. Okay. We're going to move back up to some of the more named cabinet members here. Okay. Pete Hegseth, Department of War, Pete Hegseth, Department of War. If we're not aligned on this, there's something wrong. Do not kill me. Just please do not kill me, Pete Hegseth.
Starting point is 00:05:45 Oh my God, you're not there. Well. Oh, my God, you're not there. I just look at my list here, and I've got just kind of as a mental list. I've got, he's my fifth worst cabinet member. He's my fifth worst. But don't, okay, let me just set the rules for why it's a please don't kill me. Because I literally think he could get us killed.
Starting point is 00:06:08 I mean, I'm being like, that's like you and me. Yeah, I think he could accidentally start some sort of horrific military confrontation through sheer idiocy. Yeah, that's perspective. That's prospective. I mean, for the year. So I guess we're going to lump these next two together. Where did you have Marco? I think this will be telling me.
Starting point is 00:06:28 We'll do Marco and Pete Hanks out together. You had Please Don't Kill Me for Pete. What did you have for Marco? I had bad. Okay, well, there you go. So we're an inverse here. So I had Marco in my worst of the worst. Please don't kill me, Canada.
Starting point is 00:06:41 He's in my top three worst cabinet members. I mean, if you're going to make a case against Pete, I think you would have to center on the Caribbean bombings. Yes. Right. I mean, like, he's been incompetent. There's the leak of the signal thing. He's ridiculous. Like, he called the generals in to talk to them about how they should do more pull-ups.
Starting point is 00:07:01 But, like, when you come back actually. Yeah, sure, no, no, there's been bad. Again, these are all ranges of bad. But I'm just saying, like, if you're going to make the case that he's in that top tier of worst or the worst, please don't kill me, that would center on the Venezuela Caribbean bombings. And those are Marco's idea. That's Marco.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Like, that's not Pete Higgs-Seth, actually. Pete Ex is going along with it. He's a willing puppy. But Marco has decided that he wants to start a regime change war in South America for an unclear reason that no one can enunciate. And there are dead people in the Caribbean. We don't even know who they are. We're bombing them. It's all Marco.
Starting point is 00:07:41 And I've got him and worse to the worst, Pete and just disastrous. Let me ask you this. Think about this way. Let's say Donald Trump really isn't there in two years. He's just mentally checked out. Totally dementia. And, like, who would you trust between Pete Hegseth and Marco? This is a great question.
Starting point is 00:08:00 To, like, steer us in the right direction there. Obviously, the answer is Marco, but I am taking this job literally. We are grading people on the first year. And in here one, Marco's had the worst year for me, worse than Pete. That's where I'm at. Have I convinced you? Any movement for you? No, absolutely not.
Starting point is 00:08:20 No. If anything, you've been in my position. stronger just bad just bad yeah that's gonna be the worst grade of the whole of the whole tenure all right i'm gonna save the next three they're kind of they're kind of our dessert for the end i want to move down to the transportation secretary oh this was a tough one for me you go first where'd you put him i had i had i had sean duffy and disastrous maybe it's a personal thing maybe that's a little bit hot but um i don't know i don't want you to tell me that i have to wear a suit on airplanes and there was the death there was the death that Reagan that wasn't good hold on I like that
Starting point is 00:08:58 you put this suit in the airplanes it was the death at Reagan and he did he seemed to be given him and his family a lot of they were getting preferential treatment you know during so here here's where I came down I was I was at disastrous and then I put him into bad because I gave him points for knocking Elon out. Wasn't that Scott Besson that did that? No, it was, well, Besson literally, I think, fought Elon, but Duffy and Elon had something going on
Starting point is 00:09:30 real Tiff over that John Isaacman character and he got Elon out and he withstood the bullshit and so I'm going to give him a better category for that. Thank you, Sean. Okay, so just bad for Sean Duffy for you, I'm going disastrous. So that's another disagreement. All right, I'm going to
Starting point is 00:09:46 one through a couple of the no names really fast. I'm assuming all of these people are livable. but if you, if they are not for you, you just interject. Scott Turner, the HUD secretary. No, I had it bad. Okay, great. Let's hear. I'm open to pitches.
Starting point is 00:10:02 Well, he, yeah, first of all, he's pushing the anti-immigrant stuff. He's saying they're the cause of huds and shortages. But if you remember, one of the first websites during the government shutdown that just went full on blazing, Democrats are responsible for the shit, was HUD's website. So for that reason, I think you could do better, Scott. bad i'm gonna keep him at livable uh Doug bergum interior secretary if we had a better category than livable he's our best secretary by far he's a Doug he's a Doug he's a Doug everyone loves him Doug's nail on it Lori Chavez de Rimmer I kind of forgot she was in there at laborable
Starting point is 00:10:35 livable Doug Collins at vet VA I feel like he's probably bad but I don't have a great case for it I've he really he kind of fucked up the whole doge thing if you recall a lot of cuts then undid the cuts. There's been some controversy about more VA cuts now. So I put them in the bad. Okay. And then we've got Chris Wright Energy Secretary. Hey.
Starting point is 00:11:01 We haven't had a nuclear war yet, so I'll live. Yeah. He seems bad to me. I know, but I couldn't really figure out. I mean, this could be my own ignorance. I don't know why, but I put him in the livable. Just didn't have the time to do the homework on this guy. Okay.
Starting point is 00:11:17 I'm going with bad. We'll see what the comments. Well, I feel like I'm right, though. I think that the fact that we'll bear it will bear out. Linda McMahon, education secretary, Linda McMan. I mean, I have her as disastrous. Do you not? You have a livable?
Starting point is 00:11:38 Where are you going? No, I was, no, I don't have a livable. I was between bad and disastrous. She literally wants to eliminate her entire agency, so I think that's bad. But has she been effective at doing it? They're kind of dumb pretty badly, but they haven't quite eliminated it yet. I'm going to go with disasters. She's really dumb.
Starting point is 00:11:57 I mean, it is. I just as a matter of, her existing as the education sector is disastrous. I was like, we have a wife of a fake wrestling magnate running the education department. I know. It's totally, what is her credentials for education? So that is kind of disastrous on its own. Okay, we'll read the way. Oh, wait, so wait, I convinced you to do disastrous.
Starting point is 00:12:24 Good. Right, yeah, you won me out. Now we're getting into tough territory here. We are. Because this one here is kind of a sleeper for me. Brooke Rollins' Agriculture Secretary. Oh, this was a tricky one. I had bad, but I'm curious for why you went disastrous.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Oh, it's definitely disastrous. I mean, she's on the cusp of worst of the worst for me. I would, I mean, I think that. Make your case. Yeah. What is the case here? The farm country has been hit the worst by all of this. She's out there telling people that they should be growing chickens and like fruit and veggies for themselves in their backyard.
Starting point is 00:13:04 That's like a case she's been making. There is, there have been horrible raids, immigration raids on farms. And she and like she's had complaints from industry. And she's kind of sided. basically with the immigration raiders, and she's an idiot, and farm country's getting annihilated right now. And they did just get this bail out at the end. I don't know. Unfortunately for her, it's just really tough to get into the, to the, please don't kill me worse to the worst category, because there's so many. But you make her a valid case. I'll move her to disastrous.
Starting point is 00:13:38 She's been a disaster. Okay. Awesome. I mean, if you were grading on the curve of like, like, how bad could you be in your office? Like, she might be the, worst, like a Vorpe and a warp style rating. It's like, how bad could the, her and Lutnik would be there? Like, how bad could the commerce and agriculture secretary really be? Like, how much damage could you do from those
Starting point is 00:14:00 purchase? And like, they've done quite a lot. Like, there's a lot of room for damage at defense, let's say, but not you know, you can only do so much at agriculture. Anyway, disastrous for her. And that takes us to our favorite, the Commerce Secretary Howard Nutlick. Oh, man. Here we go. I
Starting point is 00:14:16 was really toned on this one. I was really torn. I went with disastrous. I did. I did too. Okay. I did too. And it probably comes down to really, he's so clownish.
Starting point is 00:14:30 And he's just so goofy. And, you know, it's, it's kind of hard to hate him. Like, in a cast of really hate people, it's like, nutlick. Like, this is just ridiculous. I mean, this is, he's a jester. And, you know, I mean, you have to put him in disastrous over just bad, because like the economic policy and the trade policy, it's just like rake stepping over and over again
Starting point is 00:14:53 and the absurd spinning on behalf of Trump and pretending he doesn't know how math works. And then on top of that, the thing that only knocks him in, almost knocks him into worst or the worst for me, you know, is the grift that his family is running. I mean, his kids, I guess I shouldn't make any of this wild accusations. But let's just say that the Lentick kids had their best year investing in the history of the company.
Starting point is 00:15:14 That doesn't seem like an accident to me. It seems like they're, you know, know, they may have a few nudges. So I think probably objectively, he should be in worst of the worst instead of the next person I'm about to say. But, you know, likability just gets you a long way in life. And Nutlick is just slightly more likable than our next nominee, which is Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bassett.
Starting point is 00:15:38 Okay. First of all, before we get the Besant, let me just say, I agree 100% with everything. You said that was literally my rationale in Lutnik. I was like, he's kind of likable in this goofy. dumb way and the math thing really got to me is like the stupidest spin about Trump and the math and I was just like I kind of found that endearing because you're such a you're such an idiot you know it's like all right back to your boy that takes us to Bessett and this is again this is maybe the soft bigotry of low expectations I guess for let no because I because Bessent for me
Starting point is 00:16:11 gets please don't kill me worse to thirst and and they're the same right like they have the same job essentially to the economic advisors. Trump obviously trust Bessett more. Besson has gone along with the self-sabotage of the American economy, and he's done so in the most haughty, smarmy, obnoxious way possible. And he's in my top three. He's the top of the pyramid. Worse to the worst for me. Wow. We have a very big divergence. Marco and Besson. It's strange. You think that me as the former, you know, former establishment Republican who's done a face turn, you think I would have some like residual feelings for the more establishmenty normsy Republicans, but yet it's you who do.
Starting point is 00:17:01 And actually, it's a psychological thing. Here's my, here's my take on that is that you see them for what they are, which are people who have just sold out. And you recognize that they are just kind of soulless about all this and that they're creating a lot of damage and willingly doing so against their better judgment. And I hate them more because of it. Yes. And I under the hand and saying, okay.
Starting point is 00:17:22 Like, maybe there's some hope still. Like, maybe they can pull us back. They seem sane. I have Scott and the Bads. Sorry. Has there ever been a more offensive cabinet-level surrogate for a president? Like somebody when they come on offensive. Like, when they come on the TV that you find less appealing.
Starting point is 00:17:43 Has there ever been a less appealing? There's like four on this list. that I find less appealing when they talk than Scott Bessent There are You don't feel like you're getting A lecture to by Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that stuff shirt
Starting point is 00:17:56 Fucking stick up his ass Like oh I'm just over here ruining the economy But you guys are so stupid In the fake news It's not just the way he talks It's the way he sits and talks Yeah the sitting The chest
Starting point is 00:18:09 But yeah To answer your question I do find at least four more people More offensive In the cabin okay well there it is really we're really at uh the it tells you something that i just want to say once again you said that you had six people in the worst category
Starting point is 00:18:25 i took bondi out i had said so you had five i had three and two of the three have already made it for me marco rubia scott best the fact that i know you don't rate some of these people the worst the worst is actually just distressing me out okay so like when we get to something i have real problems uh we'll continue now we go to do the uh Intelligence Arena, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. I struggled, but I put her in disastrous, not worse of the worst. Yeah, she's disastrous.
Starting point is 00:18:59 I just don't think you can put her in the worst of the worst until, like, you know. Something bad has got to happen first. Like there's some leak about something that she gave a heads up to the Russians to or something. Yeah, nothing like that's happened yet. You don't hear a lot of good reporting. You don't hear a lot of people. You don't hear a lot of reporting. So, you know, give her credit for that, I suppose.
Starting point is 00:19:19 I mean, I guess. The last reporting you really heard about her was, like, when she was, you know, firing, you know, doing witch hunts within the department. Yeah, but who wasn't? And that's a particular area where, you know, it's probably, probably we want people that are, you know, have skilled in her expertise in the intelligence area. And, like, whether they did it, whether they did one week. She exposed a spy or something like that? I think she might have done that.
Starting point is 00:19:40 Yeah, she did actually expose a spy, yeah. Yeah. Disasters for her. John Ratcliffe, CIA director. You know, honestly, I put him at livable. I don't know. Dude, I haven't really had it. I mean, thank God I don't really know what the CIA is doing.
Starting point is 00:19:59 But it seems like they're inside. Yeah, I have Reckcliff it bad, but maybe it should be disastrous if we knew more. And I guess I should say you kind of can't rate him because we do not know how good the intelligence has been on the boat bombings. Right. Oh, good point. Because they're like putting it on him, and not that I would approve the boat bombings if they were actually horrible drug dealers, but like in the theory that they are legitimately dangerous narco-terrorists, then okay, well, I think that would rate them one way, assuming what we kind of assume, which is that like at least some of the people have been, I don't know, people human trafficked or people that were like doing a gig work, whatever, like that would take him pretty high towards more towards disaster. So we're going to leave it bad for me. All right, we've got, I kind of forget that this person counts as a cabinet person.
Starting point is 00:20:49 I'm very influential, obviously, in the administration, and that's Russell vote. Yeah, man, you can, you can guess where I came down on this one. Please do not kill me, because I honestly think he's going, he could kill. I probably has killed people through these cuts, but not good, not my favorite of the cabinet. Yeah, I guess you said you had five. I'm going to go ahead and upgrade myself to four. I'm going to also give Russ vote
Starting point is 00:21:13 So you had to I assumed you had been disastrous Yeah I had been disastrous Yeah I had been disasters But it's pretty You've been pretty bad
Starting point is 00:21:22 I mean I don't I don't think there's been much to hang your hat on on Russ Basically fucked up The entire preparations process Destroyed the role of Congress You know
Starting point is 00:21:32 institutionalized the imperial president And then cut every social safety As much as he can But other than that Yeah on top of that I guess I'd say He also cut hundreds, thousands of public servants who were just doing their job, doing things that are hard
Starting point is 00:21:49 to see about. It took glee in it. It took a lot of glee and doing that. And it could protect, you know, things that, you know, scientists, experts, people are talking with that story in Montana the other day, people like doing, you know, work in the land out in our public lands. I just across the board, just unbelievable amount of cuts. And the result, by the way, was not even.
Starting point is 00:22:10 like a cut in the deficit or debt. Like, they didn't even, they managed to not even cut the debt at all by cutting all those people. Real failure. Yeah. All right. Well, there you go. You've won me over twice now.
Starting point is 00:22:22 I don't think I've convinced you one time. So you're pretty stubborn. No, you got me, you got me to put Bondi out of the worst of the worst. Okay, great. Let's now go back to our remaining big ticket items. We've got Christy Noem,
Starting point is 00:22:37 Department of Homeland Security. dude i mean is it again i'm very the curiosity now is why there's three out there just big boys out there that's one of them or two of them you haven't rated and worst of the worst so i'm very curious noam is the worst is please don't kill me i mean i i feel like she's killing people gnom is the worst and if um and so if you had to choose if we if we had a pyramid system where the top slot was a single cabinet member who would you have had as your top worst cabinet member. We'll get to that at the end. Let's go through the final. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:12 So, no, was she in yours? I'll just say, yeah. I mean, Christyneum would have been mine absolute worst. And, again, grading on their performance in the year 2025. She's been absolutely despicable. And it's hard to even find a single red. People have died in nice custody. I mean, it's like, it's just horrifying.
Starting point is 00:23:32 So, yeah. Yeah, and you wouldn't know watching CBS News, but she also wrongfully sent people to a foreign torture prison. And then went and took a fucking selfie picture in front of the prisoners, like a snuff film. I was a truly despicable and disgusting person. And like the only thing really that you could say about her is the good news is like maybe some of her friends that knew her as a younger woman, like don't recognize her anymore, literally. I guess she has a new face. So, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:24:04 You just have to throw that there. I guess just kick. Can't pass up an opportunity. Also, the personal life, not great. I mean, stop, let's move on. We have a couple more. I mean, I mentioned just the breath that Cory Lundowski has when he gets up next door after they. Why do we have to do this every time?
Starting point is 00:24:24 All right. Then my last guy, RFK. I'll give mine, and that's a little. Sorry, you're going to have to, you're going to have to turn this off. You're kidding. Like, literally, I mean it literally, though. Like, I've lived in 20, 25. Yes, you've lived to all of these people.
Starting point is 00:24:41 So then put all of them into the fucking livables. You've lived through all of that. I'm just kidding. Disastrous for RFK. Disaster. I was about to literally quit the bulwark. It was that close. Needless to say, this man is, I may, please don't kill me.
Starting point is 00:24:58 And I do believe that he is probably the one most likely to kill me. So congratulations to RFK. Don't really need to allow that. Any comments? Any positive? Like, kind of you were doing a toots and boots on RFK this year? Anything he did? If I want to zag?
Starting point is 00:25:13 Yeah. If I want to zag on RFK. Well, I mean, he's provided incredible content. Like, there's that. Nine part substack series discussing him. I thought more about bamboo because of him than I've ever imagined. I wouldn't have to, if you know, you know. You know, occasionally around town here in D.C.,
Starting point is 00:25:33 like people see him spot him at the canning salon in Cleveland Park. I've been kind of, I drive by there my way to work and I've been looking for him. So that's giving me something to do. And that's about it. Okay, excellent. That's all I got. So then if we're going to review here, it ended up being not that, not that distant. And our worst of the worst, you had Heggseth.
Starting point is 00:25:52 I had Rubio. Yep. We both had Nome. Yep. I got you to put Ross back in. We both had vote. We both had vote in Nome. So I had RFK, you did not have RFK.
Starting point is 00:26:05 I had RFK. And I, yeah, that's it. We're pretty close. I think the big one is Hegg Seth and Rubio. And I stand. Oh, wait, and I had Bessent and you done it. So I guess this will be what the commenters can weigh in. In our top category for the worst of the top four, we have agreement on vote to Nome.
Starting point is 00:26:21 My then two choices are Rubio because of the extrajudicial killings and the regime change war in Venezuela. You had Hegged Seth for obvious reasons. And then I had Bessent because of the self-sabotage to the American economic system and you at RFK. okay, you know, because of the measles being back. So, I mean, I think a compelling options either way. Well, let me ask you, because if, if you had to treat Vance as a cabinet member, where did you thumb? It's an interesting question because his job is basically to post. Pretty much.
Starting point is 00:27:00 You know? Or to go to Amfest, yeah. Yeah, I guess you were trying to think, like, what are the substantive reasons to think about where to put Vance on your rankings, you know? and like, Noam, we've listened it out. Russ, vote, we listened out exactly what he did and what he's responsible for. Ruby Overs Heggs says we know the responsible for Bessette with the Terrace versus RFK with, you know, bringing back the measles, right? What would be the thing that you would say for Vans?
Starting point is 00:27:22 I guess it would be the kind of limp Ukraine support. You know, I think he's been kind of the key player internally at, you know, at this rigamarole where we kind of like pretend like we're going to support him for a minute and then pull back. And he did dress down Zelensky in the Ovaloff. I guess I would probably put him if we're just rating on output in 2025 below for me
Starting point is 00:27:48 Rubio, vote, and Noam. So you got him in the disastrous category. No, I guess I would do is I'd probably, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'd put him in. That's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, probably. That's part where I have them. And for similar reasons, I do think the like coerge, like the worsening of the rhetoric, the, the sort of divisive,
Starting point is 00:28:09 racist stuff, that definitely is an additive in the bad, disastrous category. So I put him up at the same well. I don't think he has that much responsibility. He's like the least appealing person in all of public life so my entire existence. So I mean,
Starting point is 00:28:26 just to give a sense for like my loathing of him, like I mentioned earlier that I found Scott Besson to be the least appealing cabinet member in his public presence of any cabinet member I can recall. If I had to, like, go to a four-hour boozy brunch with Scott Bessent versus having to, like, spend a minute in the presence of J.D. Vance in a non-journalistic setting and, like, a social setting. I mean, I would go to a boozy brunch of Scott Besson every week versus having to spend a fucking minute with J.D. I actually think you'll be fun. I'd have fun with Scott Besson at a boozy brunch. I assume he's going to buy some high-end shit. Yeah. Some champagne. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:06 I find JD vans to be unbelievably unappealing on every possible level. I just do think that he's below those others as far as as as far as we kind of ranking harms caused in year one. All right, man. Let's rack them and stack them. What do we got? I mean, number one for his gnome. I don't think that it's close, really, honestly, for me.
Starting point is 00:29:26 You know what? I've said all year, it's RFK. And I'm going to actually do one title wrinkle. I'm going with Nome at the end of the year. I think for the totality of the year, it's a close call. And I'm only doing this because we're doing this right now. And RFK has still not changed a childhood vaccine schedule. It's possible he does.
Starting point is 00:29:47 It's December 22nd when we're recording this. It's possibly he does, in which case I'd have to revise my opinion. But I think in terms of sheer human damage, as of now, I think Christy Numb takes the cake. And I've been on an RFK kick all year. So what a year, Christy. Happy Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy New Year, one and all. Me and Sam Stein have an agreement on the worst cabinet member of 2025.
Starting point is 00:30:14 I doubt that she'll be able to retain her crown in 2026. Seems like she's probably on the way out. And I think that it's going to be a pretty competitive category in 20206. I think there's a lot more. I'm excited. Everybody, appreciate you all very much. Tell your friends, send this to them for a little laugh, you know, over their eggnog. or I don't know. What did you, what do you, what did you do? What did you do? What did you do?
Starting point is 00:30:37 We drink eggnog too. We wrote all the songs that you guys sing on Christmas. We drink your egg knock too. We're fine. We can get along. I'm surprised that eggnog works with your constitution. I mean, I don't personally drink it, but you can drink. You know, I'm just sitting there in the corner drinking the man of Shevitz, obviously. That's what I do, you know. All right. Everybody, appreciate you all. We'll be seeing you soon.

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