Cabinet Devotes 1 Out of Every 6 Sentences Sucking Up to Trump, Wild NY Times Analysis Reveals

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet meetings have become marathon televised displays of loyalty, with aides spending at least one out of every six sentences praising him, according to a sweeping New York Times analysis.

The Times reviewed more than a dozen hours of footage spanning 10 Cabinet meetings between February 2025 and March 2026 and found the administration’s rhetoric had shifted dramatically from Trump’s first term, when some officials occasionally pushed back against him.

Instead, Trump’s current Cabinet routinely echoes his own rhetoric back to him in lengthy displays of praise, crediting him with their own departmental successes, and frequently imitating his attacks on former President Joe Biden.

Within the analysis, The Times identified distinct patterns in how senior Cabinet officials demonstrated their loyalty to Trump.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, emerged as the administration’s most prolific Trump booster, with The Times finding he both spoke the most and praised Trump the most during meetings.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, was found to criticize opponents more than any other official, with one in every six sentences being attacks on political rivals.

A recurring form of flattery across all officials was what the newspaper flagged as the “‘Only’ Trump” approach, in which Cabinet officials portray the president as uniquely capable of solving domestic and global crises.

The analysis found officials repeatedly describing Trump as the only person able to end the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, stopping foreign conflicts within “72 hours,” winning the AI race, and restoring economic growth.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeated three times that major global conflicts “never would have happened” under Trump. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly claimed on five separate occasions that Trump had achieved what others believed impossible. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump “saved this country by making it the best place in the world to do business again.”

The Times measured the “flattery” it observed in the current administration’s 10 Cabinet meetings with the 22 Cabinet meetings held throughout the first Trump administration, noting the frequency of praise has been far more excessive this time around.

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