(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
An NBC News survey of former Trump administration cabinet officials found that just four would endorse Donald Trump’s third campaign for the White House.
The four who already expressed their support for the campaign are former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker, chief of staff Mark Meadows, director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, and acting director of national intelligence Richard Grennell.
40 others, including two that the Trump campaign specifically urged NBC to reach out to, declined to endorse him at this time.
A greater proportion of top former officials in the Trump administration either specifically oppose Trump’s 2024 bid for the presidency, or have been engaged in public feuds with him, than support his campaign. Ex-attorney general William Barr, secretaries of defense Mark Esper and Jim Mattis, as well as chiefs of staff Mick Mulvaney and John Kelly, for example, have all had falling outs with Trump.
The former president has been searing in his critiques of many former cabinet officials, including former secretary of transportation Elaine Chao, who he has derisively referred to as “Coco Chow” in a less-than-subtle reference to her Asian heritage.
Trump has also called Barr a “gutless pig” and “coward who didn’t do his job,” said that Kelly, a former Marine Corps. general, was “weak and ineffective, born with a VERY small ‘brain,'” deemed Mattis “the world’s most overrated general,” and described Mulvaney as a “born loser.”
During his first campaign for the presidency, Trump had declared that he would “surround myself only with the best and most serious people.”
“We want top-of-the-line professionals,” he explained.
Despite his extraordinary unpopularity with those who know him best, Trump remains the prohibitive favorite for the Republican nomination for president.
In the RealClearPolitics average of polls of the national Republican primary electorate, Trump leads his nearest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by nearly 36 points.
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