10 Times Donald Trump Has Put Members Of His Administration In Awkward Positions

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The atmosphere in the White House reached stratospheric levels of awkwardness after Joe Biden left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to enjoy a life of eating ice cream and watching the chaos unfold from afar. Members of his successor's cabinet have watched Donald Trump obsess over the results of his frequent cognitive tests, which require him to complete tasks like identifying a giraffe. They've also had to smile like adults indulging a toddler when he gets up in the middle of a meeting and dodders over to a window to admire his destruction of the White House's East Wing. And his unpredictable behavior at cabinet meetings is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ways he makes life uncomfortable for members of his administration.

By filling his cabinet with a cast of former Fox News hosts, reality show stars, and other TV personalities, Trump put many of his administration officials in awkward positions simply by hiring them. When he was named interim NASA administrator, former "Real World" cast member Sean Duffy made a fast enemy out of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who whined on X, "Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA!" Then there's former WWE president Linda McMahon, whom Trump named education secretary. Not only was she ruthlessly mocked for misreading the initialism "AI" as "A.1." — like the steak sauce — during a speech, but the brand itself got in on the fun. "You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.," read a post on its Instagram account. And the humiliation for members of the Trump administration doesn't end there.

The only thing the president seems to love more than Triumphal Arches are those Golden Arches, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. finds one of Donald Trump's favorite McDonald's orders pretty gross. Days before Donald announced RFK Jr.'s Secretary of Health and Human Services nomination in November 2024, the man who wants Americans to eat more red meat described his soon-to-be boss' beloved Big Mac as "poison" on "The Joe Polish Show." But days after that, Donald Trump Jr. posted a photo on X of himself, his dad, Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, and RFK Jr. posing on Air Force One with a big McDonald's spread. While Donald's grin was wider than Ronald McDonald's painted-on smile, the look on RFK Jr.'s face was best described as — to keep things in McDonaldland — a "Grimace."

Donald further undermined RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again message during a speech at the McDonald's Impact Summit. "I even got Bobby Kennedy to eat a Big Mac, and he told me he loved it," the POTUS boasted. "He didn't want that publicized." RFK Jr. probably also wasn't lovin' it when Donald Jr. reveled in his deep-fried loss of dignity during an appearance on "The Charlie Kirk Show." Of the viral Mickey D's photo, the first son quipped, "He definitely looks like he got his hand caught in the cookie jar with that one," totally missing the obvious Hamburglar pun.

Perhaps hoping to save face, RFK Jr. later reiterated that he doesn't approve of the president's love affair with fast food. "I don't know how he's alive, but he is," he marveled on "The Katie Miller Podcast" in January 2026.

Donald Trump made it no secret that he wanted Pam Bondi to punish some of his political enemies. When discussing the mortgage fraud case against New York State Attorney General Letitia James, he mentioned his administration's AG by name, per Roll Call. "She's a sick person," he said of James, who won a civil fraud case against him in 2024. "But that has nothing to do with what Pam does. Pam is going to do what's right." The following month, his campaign of retribution became more obvious. "Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, 'same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, Leticia??? They're all guilty as hell,'" he wrote on Truth Social in a post that was meant to be a DM to Bondi.

Trump had previously complained about Schiff, the lead prosecutor in his first impeachment trial, and James Comey, who spearheaded the FBI's investigations into potential ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. "I'm looking at Pam because I hope something's going to be done about it," Trump said in August 2025. A month later, Comey was indicted for making false statements to Congress.

The cases against James and Comey were dismissed in November 2025 because the attorney who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed. But The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump blamed Bondi for failing to make his foes suffer. Bondi also disappointed many MAGA diehards when the DOJ didn't release all of the Epstein files, something it was legally ordered to do but that Trump was clearly against. It seems her boss's expectations for her became so high that Bondi just couldn't meet them.

There are a number of disheveled MAGA men who could use a makeover, and the president is among their ranks. However, he apparently fancies himself somewhat of a footwear aficionado. In December 2025, right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson shared a video of JD Vance addressing a crowd at a holiday gathering. According to the veep, Trump gave his feet — and those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the fairy godmother treatment upon realizing that their raggedy shoes did not meet his high sartorial standards during a meeting in the Oval Office.

Vance recalled, "He peers over the Resolute Desk, and he says, 'Marco, JD, you guys have s***ty shoes.'" Now, why was the president staring at their feet in the first place? Well, we know that Trump likes to take naps in the Oval Office, so that could explain his eyes' downward trajectory. What they saw was so offensive that he grabbed a shoe catalog and commanded Vance and Rubio to order some shoes. Trump actually bought them, too; the two men, whom Trump described as "kids," showed off their fancy new kicks during an interview with The New York Times.

Vance seemed to find his anecdote amusing, but Rubio was later photographed wearing a pair of Oxfords that were embarrassingly oversized. According to Vance, Trump had asked for their shoe sizes in front of everyone, so perhaps Rubio fibbed when he said that he was an 11 ½.

The extent of the president's ego is seemingly boundless. Donald Trump was happy to accept a hand-me-down Nobel Prize because he felt that he deserved it, and he was also just as delighted when he got his name tacked onto the Kennedy Center, despite the building being a memorial to the late John F. Kennedy Jr. Members of the Kennedy family were understandably furious when the center was renamed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sister, Kerry Kennedy, wrote on X, "Three years and one month from today, I'm going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building." She had previously called for RFK Jr. to resign from the HHS, and what he had to say about the renaming probably did nothing to warm relations between the siblings. He told CBS News that he understood the outrage but added, "I have bigger fish to fry."

To make matters worse, soon after the death of RFK Jr.'s cousin, Tatiana Schlossberg, in December 2025, Trump revealed what was foremost in his mind by going on a reposting spree on Truth Social, where his supporters were busy celebrating the Kennedy Center name change. CNN's Jake Tapper shared screen grabs of their messages on X, including one that read, "Love this. Democrats heads will explode."

RFK Jr.'s views of Trump used to be more aligned with those of his distraught family members. On X, he wrote that Trump "sound[ed] unhinged" when they were political foes running for president. But now they're such great friends that Trump calls him in the middle of the night — never mind that RFK Jr. complained that those calls give him anxiety.

Before Kristi Noem began parading around in inappropriate outfits as DHS secretary, she was just a humble, puppy-killing governor who harbored hopes of being Donald Trump's running mate. But when she joined Trump at a campaign rally in March 2024, he seemed more fixated on her looks than her record running South Dakota. "You know you're not allowed to say she's beautiful, so I'm not going to say that. I will not say it because that's the end of your political career," he said. Months later, Noem's own obsession with her appearance would earn her the contemptuous nickname "ICE Barbie."

Trump risked hurting Noem's feelings when he performed the same bit while complimenting Attorney General Pam Bondi during an August 2025 cabinet meeting. "I look at Pam. I would never say she's beautiful because that would be the end of my political career," he quipped. Each time he makes comments about the looks of women in his administration, it just raises the volume on the already relentless discourse about their appearances. The blowback is especially bad for his press secretary, as Trump likes to gush about her "machine gun" lips, and there's so much speculation about Karoline Leavitt using lip filler to increase her pout's firepower. 

Trump also made things awkward for Leavitt when an Air Force One flight experienced a little turbulence. "I'm looking for something to grab, and it's not going to be Karoline," he joked as she backed away from him, reminding everyone of how gross things got the last time Trump was recorded gabbing about grabbing a woman.

Although JD Vance once compared Donald Trump to Hitler, he still snagged the No. 2 spot on Trump's second presidential ticket. However, in a February 2025 Fox News interview, Trump wouldn't name his right-hand man his rightful heir to the MAGA movement. "Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?" host Bret Baier asked. "No, but he's very capable!" Trump said.

Since that interview, Trump has shunted Vance off to answer for messes of the president's own making. It was the VP who flew to Minneapolis in January 2026 after an ICE agent killed Renee Good. The father of three also defended the unpopular agency when it detained a 5-year-old, which happened to be the age of Vance's middle child at the time. That same month, he made headlines for being taken to task by close Trump ally Laura Loomer. Some anti-abortion activists weren't satisfied with the progress Trump was making in advancing their agenda, so Vance was saddled with another job that his boss probably wanted to avoid: trying to smooth things over by addressing them at the March for Life rally. Loomer reacted to his speech by writing on X, "Trump doesn't like when the GOP focuses on abortion." Vance fired back, "The president literally sent a video to the March for Life today and encouraged me to accept their invitation."

We also learned that Trump doesn't value his vice president's input all that much in November 2025. After saying that he would like Vance and other members of his cabinet to sit straighter and appear "scared" of him, he singled out Vance. "JD butts into conversations," he complained. 

At a 2016 rally, Marco Rubio responded to Trump calling him "Little Marco" by saying of his then-rival for the GOP presidential nomination, "You know what they say about men with small hands?" Playing dirty didn't work for Rubio the way it did for Trump, and he apologized for the anatomy insult. Perhaps Rubio was reminded of this embarrassing moment in his political career when Trump was ordering those new shoes for him and JD Vance. In Benny Johnson's video, Vance said that Trump made a similar joke about an unnamed politician who wore a size 7: "You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size."

While Trump helped Rubio further his political career by naming him Secretary of State, he seems to have zero interest in helping his former foe regain his dignity. According to Trump, he wielded his power like a cudgel when he saw a grandfather clock in Rubio's office that he just had to have for the Cabinet Room. Rubio was reluctant to part with it, but he seized it anyway. "I had to read him the rule and regulation," Trump recalled during a July 2025 cabinet meeting (via the Daily Beast). "I said, 'Marco, I love this clock.' ... I said, 'Marco, I have the right to do it.'" As Trump spoke, Rubio had to endure a lot of backslapping from the president. But if Trump wanted that clock, perhaps Rubio was better off without it. After all, this is the same man who can't cram enough gaudy gold decor on the walls of the White House and who thought it would be a great idea to install marble armrests on the chairs at the Kennedy Center.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth loves a flashy show of strength, but his power moves often aren't the flexes he thinks they are. The former Fox News host became a laughingstock online when he worked out with ROTC cadets. "Can't swing a [kettlebell], kips on pull-ups, lifts less than a kid," read one X reaction to a video of his workout session. But perhaps he's better off participating in pull-up challenges with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than planning parties. When Donald Trump was disappointed with the optics of the 2025 military parade in D.C., which was billed as a celebration of the Army's 250th anniversary but just happened to coincide with the president's birthday, it seems Hegseth was blamed for disappointing his boss. "He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this," author Michael Wolff said on "The Daily Beast" podcast in June 2025. "Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, 'The tone was all wrong.'"

Months later, Hegseth admitted that he had gotten on the president's bad side, but he didn't reveal if it was because of the parade or another more important military matter. "[When was the] last time that somebody yelled at you?" Fox News host Peter Doocy asked him (via HuffPost). "Last time I was in the Oval Office," he admitted. "President Trump's the boss; he sets the tone. If you don't get it done, he'll let you know about it."

As weight loss drugs began gaining popularity among celebrities and other prominent personalities, rumors about who might be using them became rampant. Donald Trump couldn't resist participating in the gossipfest, but he didn't just guess about which members of his administration were taking them; he spilled the tea. During a November 2025 Oval Office announcement about a deal to reduce the costs of Wegovy and Zepbound, Trump first put Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on the spot by asking him, "You take any of this stuff, Howard?" Lutnick replied, "Not yet." Trump then revealed that he knew Dr. Oz wasn't using any of the medications before later saying, "Where's Steve? Head of public relations for the White House. He's taking it."

Trump was referencing White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who is known for having a very combative personality. When The Daily Beast reporter Joanna Coles speculated that Trump might be using Ozempic, Cheung fired off a scathing X post in which he called her a "blithering idiot." He added, "Joanna is a piece of s***, clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome rotting her pea-sized brain." You have to wonder how he feels about the man he so fiercely defended disclosing his weight loss drug usage.

Donald Trump jokes about firing people in his administration so often that it feels like maybe he's missing his glory days on "The Apprentice," when sending someone packing each week was a requirement of his job. During a May 2025 cabinet meeting, he told CMS Administrator Dr. Oz that he was putting him and his team in charge of lowering drug costs. "If you don't do it, I am firing every single one of you," Trump said to his fellow former TV host.

Then, in November 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was warned that his job was in jeopardy over something he couldn't do anything about: interest rates. "The rates are too high, Scott. And if you don't get it fixed fast, I'm gonna fire your ass, okay?" Trump said during his speech at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum, per HuffPost. But in Linda McMahon's case, he didn't want to have to tell her, "You're fired!" someday. While discussing his future plans for the Department of Education in February 2025, he recalled saying to McMahon, "I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job."

In February 2025, DOGE hype man Elon Musk learned that he was possibly on the chopping block (or at least in danger of being kicked out of a cabinet meeting). Addressing his officials gathered in the room as Musk stood before them, Trump said, "Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw him out of here." Three months later, Musk's role as a special government employee and Trump's "first buddy" came to an end.