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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Low Quality Hires

Low Quality Hires

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I don’t mean to horn in on Adam’s territory, but remember when Trump said he was going to end Russia’s war against Ukraine within 24 hours of retaking office — nay, even before he takes office? Well, nearly 100 interminable days into his shitty and shameful second term, Trump is reduced to begging Putin to stop indiscriminately murdering Ukrainians.

Trump begs Vladimir Putin to stop bombing Kyiv via indirect Truth social post

[image or embed]

— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) April 24, 2025 at 9:07 AM

It’s usually poor form to tell someone how to post — as one funny dude on Bluesky put it, “it’s social media, not social youdia.” But yeah, maybe DM Putin instead of shrieking “Vladimir STOP!” like a Vladivostok fishwife? It’s embarrassing.

And this senator, sounding like an embarrassed dad trying to talk a Golden Corral manager out of firing his son, who was caught jerking off in the mop closet.

GOP Senator: Pete Hegseth can still be a great Secretary of Defense, he’s gonna need some help. He has lacked expertise in the building

[image or embed]

— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) April 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM

That’s not how it works, senator. That’s not how any of this works!

And then here’s this irredeemable asshole, who really sucks at her job:

Host: You’re the State Department spokesperson. It’s very fair for me to ask you questions about public information involving Rubio skipping Ukraine talks.

Bruce: I will not have this discussion on television. You need to accept my answers. You need to accept my answers

[image or embed]

— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) April 24, 2025 at 10:07 AM

Low quality hires from top to bottom. Like Kay says, they never get any better.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodingers_cat

    They are not low quality hires, they are doing exactly what they were hired to do, destroy the departments they are assigned to

    And Trump admin is not the first Republican administration to follow this strategy either.

  2. 2.

    satby

    And as was constantly pointed out by me and others, they were chosen exactly for the qualifications they display, which had nothing to do with performing their roles in government competently. In which situation, they’re not low quality at all.

  4. 4.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team

    Nothing against Vladivostok fishwives!

    (I thought the butter graven idol looked great Betty)

  6. 6.

    RevRick

    They are ugly quality hires, belligerent, deliberately opaque, and spewing lies. Their goal is to destroy our government from within.
    The irony is that if they succeed in their ideological goals they will end up with a weak, misbegotten nation.

  7. 7.

    JML

    There’s very little expertise left in the GOP for actual governing; it’s not like Bush II was particularly good at it either. re-treads from Trump I? Ick. the “smart” ones left in the GOP that might actually be able to do the jobs properly don’t want anything to do with this administration, because they know a) it’ll wreck their reputations, b) they’ll be expected to put loyalty and fealty above everything, c) they’ll get thrown under the bus any time it’s convenient for the king, and d) they’d constantly be fighting off the grifters and climbers that would be tearing them down to advance themselves at every opportunity. This world is a land where it’s everyone for themselves.

    The worst and stupidest.

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    Rubio is a hissy little fuck who, I guess, is trying to be Trump’s Mini-me and somehow do an endaround on JD and snag the ’28 nomination.

    How many people have to die for you to get your dream, you pathetic bastard?

  10. 10.

    satby

    And I’m insisting on recasting that “low quality” bit because it minimizes that their hires were acts of sabotage against our government and democracy.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, but I’m sure Trump thought they’d LOOK better doing it. He must have thought Hegseth would be great as SecDef. He had the chin and the buzzwords (Lethality! Warriors!). What else do you need?

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    You can put that Trump posting up top in the dictionary next to the word “pathetic.” I’m sure Putin will now reconsider not just his strategy, but his entire worldview.

    It was a very bad night in Kyiv.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Hegseth complaining about media bringing up “old news” at the White House on Easter.

    Old? It’s been three frickin’ months, dickwad.

  15. 15.

    Scout211

    I doubt that the “Vladimir, STOP!” post was anything like their actual discussions about the war in Ukraine.  But Trump and his minions always want it both ways.

    And just to add, I really despise how the media quotes his Truth Social posts as if he is really speaking to them in a press conference. Ugh.

  21. 21.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Scout211:

    And just to add, I really despise how the media quotes his Truth Social posts as if he is really speaking to them in a press conference. Ugh.

    They did the same godammned thing the first time around, only this was when the shitgibbon tweeted. Why in the fuck the press ever paid attention to and then PUBLISHED a tweet, a xeet, or chirp, or any other informal statement from the WH or POTUS is beyond me

    ETA: But then, if the MSM didn’t repost his dreck, we’d never get to see this weak sauce shit of him begging Putin to behave. Godammned but Donny is one stupid motherfucker.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    A Peter Schickele intro talks about the high baroque, the middle baroque, the low baroque and the really filthy baroque, “a characteristic which is wholly P.D.Q. Bach’s.”

    With the substitution of a very few words, entirely applicable to you-know-who..
    ;)

  23. 23.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I have never liked or agreed with the “low quality hire” framing. It presumes a mere incapacity to hire people to fulfill normal mission requirements,  rather than willful intent to hire bad people to do bad things. We’re dealing with a death cult, and its employees are doing exactly what they were hired for, namely to kill, maim, and destroy.

    That said,  it is delicious seeing Donald abase himself yet again in front of Putin

    ETA: Or what sc and satby said.

  24. 24.

    matt

    This thing where they high handedly refuse to talk about certain topics and questions – this is new, right?

  25. 25.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Our side loves content and social media stars too. Its not just a MAGA thing.

    Joe Biden had a stiff gait so he had to go. Its the era of the content creator.

    FWIW I got forwarded White Board Wanda’s (h/t Black Twitter) videos from my family WhatsApp group in India. She went viral several times but it was not enough to win the California primary.

    So we are not as far gone as the MAGA party, thank Ceiling Cat.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    I’ve been wondering if Rubio will monkerwrench the Iran nuclear talks. I think he wants to, and the US has moved enough military assets to the area to start a war. I guess we’ll see what happens in Oman this weekend.

    At least Rubio and company haven’t screwed up on Syria. Yet.

  29. 29.

    catclub

    but remember when Trump said he was going to end Russia’s war against Ukraine within 24 hours of retaking office — nay, even before he takes office?

    Yes, Yes _I_ do.

    Trump has the attention span of a gnat. Unfortunately that is still longer than the attention span of US media for recalling his promises.

  32. 32.

    Shalimar

    Knowing immediately that “Bruce” would be Tammy Bruce means I spend way too much time on the minutia of reading every insane thing each rightwing asshole thinks.

    Fun fact: Tammy Bruce is yet another rightwing influencer who was a high school dropout.

  33. 33.

    Old Man Shadow

    @schrodingers_cat: Joe Biden had a stiff gait so he had to go.

    He’s also rather boring. No outrage. No chaos. No bullshit. No tantrums. How are we gonna get ratings?

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    Low quality hires High quality saboteurs deftly executing an evil agenda. Okay. If y’all say so. Still looks like a fucking clown show run by an addled carnival barker to me.

  35. 35.

    randy khan

    I knew Cramer a little bit from his previous job as a commissioner of the North Dakota Public Service Commission (actually a fairly important job at the time as it was during the oil boom, and they had jurisdiction over pipelines and such).  He was pretty reasonable all around, and not given to the kind of rhetoric you see from Trumpians these days.  But he also was savvy enough to know which way the wind was blowing, and when he went for higher office he made a sharp right turn.  So it turns out he’s the kind of person who people think about when they complain about politicians.

  36. 36.

    Doug R

    Looks like Dipshit Donnie is more worried about Russian soldiers than Vlad.

    And more worried about Russian soldiers than American soldiers.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @Chief Oshkosh: Godammned but Donny is one stupid motherfucker.

     

    However, THAT is definitely not news. So publishing it is maintaining the US media’s high standards.

  41. 41.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: I’d settle for low quality saboteurs, or just saboteurs, if you will.

    No argument about the addled orange clown at the head of this demented circus.  His hires, however,  are a mixed bag in terms of capacity.  Some are in fact very smart and have demonstrated surprising (to me) strategic sense in their selected targets.  Others are evil bozos as you suggest.  They’re all daleks aimed at destruction.  Which is intentional.

    ETA: I think the distinction is really important.  The low quality hire framing misses the mark of nihilistic intentionality, and I believe it’s essential that we acknowledge and grapple with that. The two different models elicit significantly different responses and strategies.

  42. 42.

    catclub

    Also in low quality hires: Apparently the guy who installed Signal on Hegseth’s computer raised his own status dramatically. This is not a very high bar.
    If you can RTFM you can install software.

    Of course, the DOD computer tech probably said something along the lines of
    “we have previous standing orders not to do that.”

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    @catclub

    Saw a report that captured North Korean troops deployed to Ukraine said outright they were lied to, that they were told they were going to be facing South Koreans on the Ukrainian side.

  44. 44.

    brendancalling

    “And this senator, sounding like an embarrassed dad trying to talk a Golden Corral manager out of firing his son, who was caught jerking off in the mop closet.”

    When I was still in high school, I worked at the local college as a dishwasher with a bunch of other high school guys. The staff bathroom was in the basement, so frequently we’d use the scrub sink in the mop room as a pissoir. Someone would always keep a lookout in case because our manager was not cool with this.

    Anyway, one day Doug was in the mop room taking a leak when Ken the manager came in, looking for Doug. My buddy Derrick held his finger to his lips and said “Shhhhh,” and pointed to the mop room.

    “What’s he doing in there,” Kenny asked. Derrick shrugged and mimed like he was jerking off. Kenny laughed, and then Doug walked out of the mop room pulling up his fly.

    Kenny had questions. Doug was bright red and didn’t have answers. It was very funny, all the more so because we were all stoned out of our gourds.

  46. 46.

    Adrian Lesher

    @schrodingers_cat: Trump has always hired a lot of people with a certain amount of desperation about them, people whom he thinks can’t afford to be disloyal in any way to him.  Being a low-quality hire isn’t inconsistent with being.a loyal henchperson.

     

    @schrodingers_cat:

  47. 47.

    Jeffro

    They’re not just low-quality hires…they’re literally unemployable in any other administration.  Freaks and morons, all of them.

  48. 48.

    catclub

    @O. Felix Culpa: I agree with all that and wanted to add that those low quality hires were also a loyalty test for getting the GOP Senate to submit to whatever Trump asked of them.  … And they did

     

    I though they would reject Gabbard because she is a woman, but not even that.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: “I’M TRYING TO MAKE VOLODYMYR LOOK BAD SO THAT WE CAN PULL OUT COMPLETELY, VLADIMIR!  YOU’RE NOT HELPING!!

    JUST GIVE IT A MONTH AND THEN YOU CAN ROLL RIGHT INTO KYIV!!!”

  51. 51.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @catclub:  Good point about the loyalty tests. Getting people to bow and abase themselves to his dominance is core Trump MO.

  54. 54.

    Layer8Problem

    @Betty Cracker:  People look for patterns even where none exist.  Sure, sometimes there are bad actors with a agenda, certainly with this outfit and their enablers.  How else does one explain Miller and Vought given their success while keeping relatively unmentioned in the tabloids?  They have a program and backers.  But Hegseth?  “He looks like a badass!” was probably the second line on his resume and Trump just said “No need to look anymore, you’re hired.”  No thinking required.

  55. 55.

    brendancalling

    @NotMax: that was the best part. Kenny looked at Doug, looked at us, looked at Doug again, rolled his eyes and muttered “I don’t even wanna KNOW,” and walked away.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    Now you figure it out? Dude.

    Republican megadonor Ken Griffin said the United states “is 20% poorer” than it was just a month ago because of President Trump’s economic policies.

    Said Griffin: “In the financial markets, no brand compared to the brand of the U.S. Treasuries—the strength of the U.S. dollar, the creditworthiness of U.S. Treasuries. No brand came close. We put that brand at risk. It can take a very long time to remove the tarnish on a brand.”

    He added: “It can be a lifetime to repair the damage that has been done.”

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: California just surpassed Japan as the 4th largest economy. Pretty sure that’s more a reflection of Japan’s hit from this trade chaos than strength on California’s part, given the real impacts here haven’t been felt yet.

  60. 60.

    Martin

    @Layer8Problem: Yeah, my take is that there are no patterns here. Trump cares only about Trump and will do whatever he thinks will make him a winner. Everyone around him understands this perfectly and exploits that for their personal advantage. There is no strategy other than a mad king and a small army of ambitious princelings that are as much knives out for each other as anything else.

  62. 62.

    schrodingers_cat

    It is funny how Schumer gets hauled over coals in the media for his vote and there is talk of replacing him as the Minority leader but BS of Vt gets a pass from the same people for elevating Tulsi Gabbard, his pro gun and anti-immigrant voting record. His age is also not a factor to his bros who spend the entire day bleating about a gerontocracy or making jokes about Joe Biden’s age on late night TV

    To his cult he can do no wrong.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    @karen gail:

    Nobody does doomspeak like Russia does doomspeak. Their captive broadcast newsmedia are constantly making sardonic jokes about the inevitable vaporization to come, but confident it also leads to their victory.

    It would be nice if they tried at least a little to disprove the caricatures.

  66. 66.

    Belafon

    @Baud: There needs to be a word that means “The collective that I’m part of but it doesn’t actually include me” and another word that means “Everyone around me but the smart people that I’m obviously not a part of anymore.”

  70. 70.

    Scout211

    What? And also too, Yay!

    The Pentagonwill resume gender-affirming care for transgender service members, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO, an embarrassing setback to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to restrict their participation.

    The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the move, but a federal appeals court in California denied the department’s effort to halt the policy while its challenge is pending.

    Hegseth is a fine example of a Low! Low! Low! hire.

    And he just set up his makeup studio in the pentagon for that suave and steamy good look he loves (about himself).

  74. 74.

    ExPatExDem

    The Trump Peace plan:

    1.  Russia gets Ukraine’s territory
    2.  U.S. gets Ukraine’s mineral rights in perpetuity
    3.  Ukraine gets to bend over

    It’s a Gordian knot of mystery why Zelensky isn’t giving thanks for this wonderful deal.

  76. 76.

    gvg

    @schrodingers_cat: We have no say over Sanders though. Only Vermonters do. I have never understood why they liked him in the first place…..but I currently have all republicans and he would be an improvement. I used to have real democrats which is what I want again. The minority leader is something that all those with democratic Senators can influence indirectly, and it does make a difference.

    As for bashing Sanders, when he does something, we will bash him. We are kind of busy, so we don’t do it all the time. Not many bills being introduced for him to vote on, so he hasn’t had much of a chance to irritate us lately.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    I’ll give George—if that’s really his name—50:50 odds on this working.

    Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who is set to be sentenced Friday for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, has made one last plea for mercy in a New York Times interview.

    Said Santos: “Right now, my expectation is I’m going to prison for 87 months. I’m totally resigned.”

    He added: “The president knows my predicament. It’s not like it’s a secret. If the president thinks I’m worthy of any level of clemency that is bestowed upon him, he can go ahead and do it, but for me to seek a pardon is to deny accountability and responsibility.”

    Thank the lord Weinstein isn’t fighting federal charges.

  84. 84.

    karen gail

    @catclub: You don’t even need to read the manual; the last piece of software I installed at home did all the work itself. For years all you had to do was put disc in drive and it would auto install; just click on install button. And this was 15 or 20 years ago.

  85. 85.

    Paul in KY

    @Professor Bigfoot: I’m a ex-USAF officer who handled Top Secret info and was, for a time, the base COMSEC officer, etc. etc.

    It just infuriates me how compromised we have been and are and TFG not having ANYTHING done to him after knowing some decent people who did a stretch in Leavenworth for mishandling that stuff. As Scott would say: GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

  86. 86.

    karen gail

    @trollhattan:

    Personally, I doubt his nuclear weapons even work or are still in place. Which is why he doesn’t push the button; all threat and no bang. I could be wrong.

  88. 88.

    am

    “Vladivostok fishwife”

    I dislike that guy as much as the next person, and that is so brutal I almost feel bad for him. Almost.

  91. 91.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Paul in KY: The GOP was suborned a long time ago thanks to money funneled through NRA.

    I ask— if Trump and the GOP were actually Russian assets, what would he be doing differently?

    And then, since he has direct control of DOJ and FBI (the counter-intelligence arm of USG), who’s gonna hold them to account?

    ”It ain’t what you know, it’s what you can prove” remains in effect. Dammit.

  92. 92.

    catclub

    @Belafon: “The collective that I’m part of but it doesn’t actually include me”

     

    I think Groucho Marx had something to say about that.

  93. 93.

    Soprano2

    @JoyceH: I find that in general Republicans care a lot about how good things look, rather than how good the performance is. So they care that Hegseth looks the part on TV; because he’s a “strong” white guy they assume he can do the job. They do that with everything.

  94. 94.

    Jay

    nitter.poast.org
    logo
    John Hardie
    @JohnH105
    Apr 22
    Also, before Trump starts making trades for dubious Kremlin “concessions,” he’d do well to reread the CAATSA law of 2017. It explicitly bars US recognition of Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory occupied by force, including Crimea. It also allows Congress to block the lifting of many Russia-related sanctions. This includes sanctions on banks and energy firms that the Biden admin (re)designated under EO 13662 on its way out the door precisely so they’d fall under CAATSA.

    nitter.poast.org/JohnH105/status/1914786258842194199#m

  95. 95.

    schrodingers_cat

    @gvg:As for bashing Sanders, when he does something, we will bash him. We are kind of busy, so we don’t do it all the time. Not many bills being introduced for him to vote on, so he hasn’t had much of a chance to irritate us lately

    I find the fawning his grifting tour is getting from the usual suspects a tad irritating. He and his cult is one of the reasons of why we are here.

    Though that’s a pinprick compared to my irritation at the people currently in charge in DC.

  98. 98.

    Citizen Alan

    @gvg:Only Vermonters do. I have never understood why they liked him in the first place…..but I currently have all republicans and he would be an improvement.

    Because he’s a senator whose been in DC forever and brings home pork, I assume. That’s why Mississippi kept voting for a succession of Senators and Representatives whose staffs never allowed them to speak in public because their mental impairment was so obvious.

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    This fuckin’ guy, the hell?

    Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told the Washington Free Beacon that President Trump should ditch talks with Iran and bomb the country instead.

    Said Fetterman: “Waste that shit. You’re never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

    The window, she’s not so incredible.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    @schrodingers_cat:  Though that’s a pinprick compared to my irritation at the people currently in charge in DC.

    Which is perhaps why the AOC/Sanders tour is getting  a lot of attention — they’re perceived as straight-shooting, anti-establishment “outsiders” compared to the career Dem pols in DC with their measured, focus group-tested words and talk of comity and patience and all that. Not necessarily my view of all things, but it’s definitely the vibe among younger progressives these days.

  104. 104.

    Bokonon

    @satby: And as was constantly pointed out by me and others, they were chosen exactly for the qualifications they display, which had nothing to do with performing their roles in government competently. In which situation, they’re not low quality at all.

    And … they are blonde!!

  105. 105.

    trollhattan

    @jonas: They get folks out in the offest of political offcycles, and anything that gets through the present torpor and exhaustion brought on by living through the last several months, well, I’ll take it on face value.

  107. 107.

    Searcher

    Listen, if you’re going to jerk off in the closet of a Golden Corral, you have to (a) clock out first; it counts towards one of your 15 minute breaks and (b) wash your hands afterwards.

    We’ve talked about this, people.

  108. 108.

    Matt

    @trollhattan:

    He added: “It can be a lifetime to repair the damage that has been done.”

    If I ran the show, the beginning of the repair process and the end of guys like Ken’s “lifetime” would be strongly correlated…

  110. 110.

    TONYG

    Tammy Bruce is a State Department spokeswoman now?  I missed that one.  Another horrible person from the world of right-wing talk radio and Fox News.

  112. 112.

    mrmoshpotato

    Sounds like the stupid, orange, fascist bitch has forgotten that he’s Putin’s bitch – not the other way around.

    Dump could stop sucking Vlad’s ass and being a traitor to democracy, but why lie to ourselves?

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    I do like your language in your last sentence.

    Because with shitforbrains we really should be required to swear about him and any of his hires/buddies. Because all they do is help make him worse.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Still looks like a fucking clown show run by an addled carnival barker to me.

    I’d say addled and drugged – and I don’t mean prescription drugs. Or good ones…..

    But of course they are not going to have good drugs, their entire concept of everything including life is screwing up.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @Layer8Problem:

    Trump just said “No need to look anymore, you’re hired.”  No thinking required.

    No positive thinking ability allowed. Ever in their world.

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