The president has regularly lavished praise on his Cabinet, even as it navigated scandals and media reports of impending job losses, a stark contrast from his first administration, when members cycled in and out. 

“I think my Cabinet is fantastic. I read the same stories that I’m unhappy with this one or that one, and I’m not,” Trump said during a business round table this month, defending his team. “I think the Cabinet has done a great job.” 

However much Trump has stood by his inner circle, some Cabinet members have had a better 2025 than others, while other Cabinet members continue to face reports that they could be replaced.  

The Washington Examiner ranked the top four members who thrived this year and the top four members who had a much rougher year. 

The top four Trump Cabinet members

Marco Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spent 2025 navigating several global crises, including the efforts to end the battle between Israel and Hamas. But Rubio has remained on Trump’s good side even as efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war have stalled and dragged on. 

Rubio has attended peace agreement signings at the behest of Trump, who regularly praises him. And in a sign of Trump’s approval, Rubio also held four positions in 2025, including secretary of state, acting national security adviser, acting archivist of the United States, and acting USAID administrator. 

“I have to say this, Marco Rubio is a great Secretary of State,” Trump said during remarks at the Kennedy Center’s honor dinner. “If we keep going like this, he’s gonna go down as the greatest Secretary of State in the history of our country. So, Marco, thank you very much.”  

Matt Dole, a GOP strategist, said, “It’s been a good year” for Rubio, as he has navigated international crises.

“On the foreign policy front, he’s facing a ton of challenges … every day there’s a flare-up somewhere, and he faces a ton of challenges, but he’s done a pretty good job,” Dole said. 

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JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance has remained in Trump’s good graces, having been deployed nationwide to promote the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other economic priorities, while also defending the president on foreign policy. 

Vance notably heckled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an Oval Office meeting and even raised eyebrows among Europeans with his speech at the Munich Security Conference, demonstrating his willingness to defend Trump. 

Vance upbraided Zelensky for disrespecting the Trump administration in February in a stunning display before the American public, just two weeks after he scolded European allies over free speech abuses and religious liberty during his high-profile Munich speech.

Trump has also said Vance will “most likely” be his MAGA successor. But he has also simultaneously praised Rubio, before saying he is unsure who could excite the GOP base as well as he can. 

“I can speak for the president, saying he genuinely enjoys the vice president’s company, and he greatly trusts him, as evidenced by his tasking the vice president with major projects like the TikTok deal, which the vice president successfully helped lead and accomplish with China,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Washington Examiner in October. 

Linda McMahon

Education Secretary Linda McMahon may not be as high-profile as Rubio and Vance, but she has followed through on a long-term conservative wish to effectively dismantle the Education Department. 

McMahon announced in November that the Education Department signed six interagency agreements, meaning six critical programs will be shifted to four other federal agencies. 

“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” McMahon said in a statement at the time. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”

At the business roundtable, Trump again championed McMahon’s efforts to put herself out of a job.

“I’ll tell you who’s doing a great job: it’s Linda McMahon. We’re bringing education back to the states where it belongs. Education is going, we can’t do any worse than we’re doing right now. Let the states run it,” Trump said. 

Scott Bessent 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has navigated the fallout from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs without falling into a major problem with the president. 

However, the president has jokingly teased Bessent that he “fire his ass” after he advocated for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to continue in his role. 

“The only thing Scott’s blowing it on is the Fed, because the Fed, the rates are too high, Scott, and if you don’t get it fixed fast, I’m going to fire your ass, OK,” Trump said while speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum last month. 

The comments speak to Trump’s approval of Bessent, who has also worked with China to save TikTok’s usage in the U.S. and has pushed housing as a key part of the administration’s affordability message. 

Bessent told the Washington Examiner in September that Trump could even declare a national housing emergency as part of the efforts. 

The bottom four Trump Cabinet members

Pete Hegseth 

War Secretary Pete Hegseth faced a tough confirmation earlier this year after allegations of sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and financial mismanagement. It took Vance casting the tiebreaking vote, 51-50, to save Hegseth’s nomination. 

Hegseth’s tenure became rockier after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, revealed in March that he was added to a Signal chat in which Hegseth and top Trump administration leaders discussed whether the U.S. should attack the Houthis. 

The Signal group also included Vance, Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard. A review from the War Department Office of Inspector General showed that Hegseth violated department protocol. But the review also said that as war secretary, Hegseth has the authority to declassify any information he wants.

Hegseth’s problems only continued after the Washington Post alleged in November that the war secretary personally gave orders to conduct a second strike against narco-terrorists in the Caribbean Sea to kill survivors of the wreckage. Initially, the Trump administration denied the reporting, but later said Adm. Mitch Bradley ordered the strike, with Trump’s approval. Hegseth said he “didn’t stick around” for the second strike, while Bradley said there was no “kill them all” order. The president has continued to defend Hegseth throughout the year, but congressional lawmakers have been less willing to stand by him.  

“I read a story that I was unhappy with Pete because he was attacking drug dealers. I said, that’s not exactly right. I would say very much the opposite,” Trump said during the business roundtable. “Pete Hegseth has been phenomenal.” 

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 requires Hegseth to release unedited footage of all boat strikes or face cuts of three-quarters of his designated travel budget. 

In defense of Hegseth, a straw poll taken at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month found Hegseth had some of the the highest approval ratings of Trump’s cabinet members wen it came to job performance. Some 94.7% of attendees said they either strongly or somewhat approve of him.

Kristi Noem 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem began the year confident in her abilities to crack down on illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border. Noem joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement forces as it led raids in New York City and attempted to revoke temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants, Haitian nationals, and Afghan immigrants, with some success. 

During a press conference in Los Angeles in June, federal officers forcibly removed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) as Noem was speaking. 

Now, Noem’s position in the White House is in jeopardy as reports allege that she has lost favor with Trump and is barely speaking with border czar Tom Homan. Other reports say an alleged romantic relationship with Corey Lewandowski, who serves as her chief adviser, has frustrated White House officials. 

“The way she carries herself has made her a lightning rod,” Dole said about Noem’s tenure. “You can have cabinet secretaries that want to go to their office and do their work and go home at night and try and make change. Or you can have folks that are going to build a public profile, and she’s chosen to build a public profile, and I think she has faced an uphill battle as a result of that.” 

Yet, Trump has stuck by Noem despite the reporting.

“I read a story recently. I’m unhappy with Kristi. I’m so happy with her,” Trump said during the business roundtable. “I mean, we have a closed border. We have a border that’s the best border in the history of our country. Why would I be unhappy? She’s fantastic.”  

Chris Wright 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has reportedly angered officials within the Trump administration over his decision to cancel $30 billion in Energy Department grants, which originated under former President Joe Biden’s administration, without promptly consulting the White House.

The White House wanted to use the grants that Wright, a former Colorado fracking executive, was canceling as a negotiating tactic with Congress and the states. 

“It just seems so messy right now,” a source told Politico about the relationship between Wright and the White House. “I don’t know how much longer he’s got.”

Last month, multiple clean energy groups sued the Trump administration over the cancellation of $7.5 billion in Energy Department grants for projects in Democratic states, with Wright and Russell Vought, the White House Office of Management and Budget director, named in the lawsuit. 

Vought announced on X during the protracted government shutdown that he was canceling $8 billion of the grants to Democrat-led states. Another $22 billion in an unconfirmed “kill list” included grants in Republican-led states, causing consternation among GOP lawmakers. 

Sources also told CNN that, along with Noem, Wright could be on the chopping block if Trump shakes up his Cabinet early next year. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Despite some hesitation from several Republicans over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s history of vaccine skepticism and promoting public health conspiracies, the scion of the famous Kennedy family was confirmed to his current position in a 52-48 vote. 

Kennedy’s leadership over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has garnered much criticism from healthcare experts. He opposed a vaccine mandate for measles even as an outbreak spread in Texas. He has also faced criticism for tightening COVID-19 recommendations for senior citizens, removing all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and firing Susan Monarez, the former head of the CDC. 

Several top officials, including Dr. Debra Houry, CDC’s former chief science and medical officer, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former lead of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, resigned due to Monarez’s ouster. 

Kennedy also faced a contentious Senate hearing in September as Democrats and Republicans pressured him over his vaccine stances. 

Once again, Trump has stood by his Cabinet team member despite the public criticism.

“I heard he did very well today,” Trump said about Kennedy’s Senate hearing. 

“He’s got a different take, and we wouldn’t listen to all of those,” he also said. “But it’s not your standard talk, I would say. And that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health, and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”

Honorable mentions 

Multiple Republicans said Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, deserved credit for reining in the chaos that dominated the first Trump administration. 

“This Trump administration is a much more nuanced, much more professional,” Dole said. “Obviously, you’re never going to stop the president’s tweets or things like that, but it just appears as though they have a direction they know they want to go, and they’re constantly making progress in that direction.” 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was also mentioned by several GOP strategists, who said he had a good year navigating tough situations.

“He’s someone who clearly the president respects. He’s clearly one of the president’s closest advisers,” a strategist told the Washington Examiner about Burgum. 

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However, others were mixed on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

“I think people think that Sean Duffy is a lightweight,” one Republican said.