Of Pop-Tarts and Sauerkraut

The eclectic Cabinet says a great deal about the commander-in-chief.

It was funny to hear Secretary of State Marco Rubio talk about his diet. He said that he tried “keto” and said that, had he continued, he would have ordered the bombing of Paraguay; so much was he out of sorts with that type of low-carb diet. His wife added that the secretary loves Pop-Tarts. Rubio did not deny the accusation but rather stated that they were a great American invention. He also noted that he cannot do the “sauerkraut and meat” Paleo diet of Secretary of Health and Human Services Bobby Kennedy Jr. And with that, we saw the beauty of the Trump orbit.

Donald Trump makes it his business to choose competent lieutenants and then let them run their activities. Rubio, the Cuban-American former Republican senator, and Kennedy, scion of America’s premier Democratic political family and considered to be a “nature guy,” would not seem like natural allies on the Trump team. But that is the genius of Donald Trump. Marco Rubio has proven himself to be a tireless and unapologetic leader of America’s foreign affairs, while Bobby Kennedy is driving a revolution in the way Americans interact with their food and drugs. He has pushed affordable, healthy food and is getting food companies to remove dyes and other additives. He and his people at the FDA are working to make drug companies more responsible to the American people after the misdirection and falsehoods of COVID. While the two men seem so different, they both have the president’s support and are doing their best to further the personal and national interests of the American people.

And here we see the difference between the Trump and Biden administrations. I do not wish Joe Biden any suffering with his current cancer sickness. But one cannot ignore the fact that Joe Biden was often not there as president: he seemed confused, he spoke in unintelligible sentences, and he often needed help knowing where to stand or how to get off of a stage. One may not like Donald Trump, but even his greatest detractors in the press say that he is a dynamo. At all hours, he can engage the press on Air Force One, and many reporters have his phone number and have spoken directly with him — something that was unheard of with Biden and Barack Obama. There are many differences between Biden and Trump (besides heart rate) and their administrations. Biden’s team was big into window-dressing: look, the first black woman vice president! Wow, add gay, and we have our spokesperson. First gay transportation secretary, etc. And while they were notching all of their meaningless accomplishments, there probably wasn’t a hairsbreadth difference in their views on abortion, open borders, DEI, and other important topics. Like Harvard, they had every empty diversity except for “viewpoint diversity.” Such is not the case with Trump’s team. His guys seem wildly different, yet they can all work together seamlessly to bring to fruition the president’s agenda.

Nobody could claim that JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent, Elon Musk, Tom Homan, and RFK Jr. all agree on every topic, especially as things relate to the economy. There were reports early in the present administration that Kennedy wanted changes from the food industry that would have had significant negative economic implications for food firms. The independence and difference in backgrounds and worldviews mean that Donald Trump has a full spectrum of opinions and options when dealing with the country’s problems and needs. Was there anybody in the Biden administration pointing at DHS head Mayorkas and demanding that the border be sealed as it is today? Not a chance. And while some folks want all illegal aliens out, while others might seek some type of dispensation for those in certain areas of the economy like agriculture, it is Donald Trump who makes the final decisions after getting different opinions with their pros and cons.

Let’s take a quick look at the exiting White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt. She became the first person in her family to graduate from college in 2019. She began to work in the White House shortly thereafter. When Donald Trump returned to Washington, she became the youngest spokesperson for a president at age 27. She did not come in with a long resume or tons of external experience. But she is smart, spunky, and Donald Trump trusts her. I think that she did a great job handling a generally hostile press, and she always made sure that Donald Trump — and not she — was the center of her business. Unlike her predecessor, who droned on about being the first black, gay woman to stand on one foot while talking into an electronic microphone, Leavitt did her job and kept the media in their place. No doubt, she helped the Washington psychiatrist corps by giving them extra hours to handle their demoralized White House press clients. She leaves her job to be at home, not yet 30 years old, handling with confidence and clarity those who often have been covering the White House for decades.

A confident president can afford to give his people the independence to do their jobs. He can also have people with different backgrounds and opinions around him in order to weigh and synthesize his options. The bit about sauerkraut and Pop-Tarts is not really important to the affairs of the nation, but in the previous administrations, if someone crowed about having a big SUV and making barbecues, he would have been considered a climate sinner for not having an electric car and eating kale and arugula. Rubio might not be into Paleo, but he wouldn’t deny it to Kennedy, who has said his new diet has helped his personal health.

One day when I was sitting in the Leverett House Library at Harvard, a classmate approached. I was reading some books on architecture and design. She seemed surprised at my book selection. “Aren’t you a biochemistry major?” she asked. I asked her why she was surprised at my books. Does one have to always be glued to his major? People have criticized Pete Hegseth for not being a board member of Raytheon. Yet, the enlisted guys seem to love and trust him when he shows up to work out with them and give them encouragement for the job they are doing in protecting the country. New enlistment is off the charts, reaching annual goals months early. Kennedy was also raked over the coals for not being a doctor or a standard medical administrator. Yet, he is the first person to take on the drug companies for their nefarious activities, including advertising on television (and thus holding the nightly news hostage in its coverage of their sector). He grabbed the Fauci “diary” material from government computers and gave us the needed details of the betrayals, lies, and misdirections during the COVID emergency. He is also working to remove the endless list of chemicals in our food. Musk famously put together his young DOGE team to identify the shameless waste and funding of anti-American activities by USAID and other governmental offices. We often need outsiders to clean up messes perpetuated by all the right people. The regulars just keep doing what their predecessors did without any effort at making a real change in their departments.

I would never suggest that Rubio and Kennedy make peace with a sauerkraut-filled Pop-Tart. Even Kennedy joined in with the McDonald’s and Diet Coke that Donald Trump serves to all those aboard flights with him. Donald Trump has a great team, and their being different is a boon for the U.S. Let’s hope that they have the ability and time to right the ship of state.

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