The New York Times published an analysis on May 27, 2026 of more than 12 hours of footage spanning ten Trump cabinet meetings between February 2025 and March 2026. The Times found that at least one in every six sentences spoken by cabinet ministers contained praise of Trump, credit to Trump for administration achievements, or attacks on Joe Biden and the Democrats.
The pattern is more pronounced than during Trump's first term, when some aides still occasionally tempered the president's impulses. According to the Times, the second-term cabinet meetings have become exercises in performative loyalty — competing displays of sycophancy aimed at the president personally rather than discussions of policy.
Specific examples documented in the analysis: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Trump he “saved this country by making it the best place in the world for business.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on at least three occasions that Trump would not have allowed conflicts in Afghanistan, Ukraine, or even the October 7 Hamas attack to occur. The most lavish in praise are Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Howard Lutnick; JD Vance stands out primarily for attacks on political opponents.
The analysis frames a documented governance pattern: a cabinet selected for loyalty rather than expertise, operating without normal deliberative function, with public meetings used as ritualized affirmations of the president's leadership. It also sits inside the same week as Trump's own visibly diminished performance — the cabinet meeting where he fell asleep next to Rubio (see Trump Appears to Doze at His May 27 Cabinet Meeting, the Day After His Walter Reed Checkup).