A quantitative analysis has found that top US government officials are competitively heaping praise on President Donald Trump during cabinet meetings.
The New York Times (NYT) reported on Tuesday that after analyzing all publicly available cabinet meeting footage since the launch of the Trump administration, flattery directed at the president appeared in roughly one out of every six sentences spoken by cabinet-level officials. This means a substantial portion of meeting time was devoted to praising the president personally, going beyond mere ceremonial greetings.
The NYT classified flattery into three categories: direct praise of the president himself, disparagement of political opponents including Democrats, and remarks attributing departmental or agency achievements to the president. Preferred styles varied by participant. Secretary of State Marco Rubio leaned heavily on direct praise, while Vice President JD Vance spent more time attacking Democrats. CIA Director John Ratcliffe favored a rhetorical approach that credited intelligence agency achievements to Trump personally.
A number of remarks crossed conventional lines. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin described Trump as "someone who would take a bullet for America." US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer suggested designating Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as "Trump Trade Policy Day," and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, "You saved this country." The NYT assessed that many such remarks were inconsistent with objective facts or exaggerated.
The contrast with the first Trump administration is stark. During his first term, the cabinet partly took it upon itself to check the president's impulsive decisions, but that dynamic has disappeared in the second-term cabinet. In its place, a narrative has taken hold that only the president can solve every difficult problem. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, "America is the country that produced the light bulb, the transistor, and the GPU, and Trump is the only president who has truly understood what that means." Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued that without Trump's election, the US would have lost the artificial intelligence (AI) race.
On foreign affairs, the "Trump-can-do-anything" narrative becomes even more overt. Referring to border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand, Rubio said the president halted the fighting with a single phone call, calling it "something no other world leader could do." Similar rhetoric was repeated regarding the Russia-Ukraine war and the ceasefire phase in the Gaza Strip.
