Trump’s secrets are some of the most valuable in the world. That means those people he allows to be closest to him are incredibly important to him. However, we don’t always know who he has playing parts on television compared to actually providing him real information. Moreover, who he trusts with the things he doesn’t tell the public, are interesting figures. When you think of the Secretaries in his cabinet from this lens, it paints a very different picture.
Secrets In The Office of the President
The President of the United States is undoubtedly a tough job. Part of that difficulty has to deal with keeping secrets. Working on a big plan? Keep a tight lid on it until you’re ready to announce it. Running a campaign? Don’t let the opposition know your next ad spot, and don’t leak debate notes. The President also has war plans and international relationships to worry about so they can’t always be playing open hand poker metaphorically speaking. They have to play things often very close to their chest.
We should all expect that comes with the territory.
Sometimes the President will make a terrible mistake. Or many. However, we imagine that they are still operating from what’s best for the nation. Some have tried to argue that Trump is an asset of Russia, for example. I see it differently: Trump is so purely self-centered that the Russians simply made deals with him. It is not true to say that Trump specifically or intentionally is ruining the nation. He just doesn’t give a damn anymore; if he ever did.
So, those accusations can be levied.
But they can’t be proven.
Not so long as Trump has people who will keep his secrets…
From Secretarius to SignalGate
Before a secretary was someone who sat behind a desk, and before they ran departments or became recognizable Cabinet faces on the Sunday shows, they were something much, much more intimate: A secretarius.
In classical Latin, secretarius referred to a confidential clerk, one entrusted with the private matters of a powerful individual. The word derives from secretum – “a secret, a hidden thing, a private matter” – and was used to describe not the keeper of public order, but the custodian of private will.
The secretarius did not serve the public. He served the king.
And in this light, the modern Secretary isn’t a neutral manager. They are modern-day keepers of the President’s secrets. In certain contexts that would be normal, and fine for a President to have. But in the case of Donald Trump and his anti-constitutional movement? It’s treacherous and treasonous.
The secretarius tradition lives on in the executive branch – but under Trump – it has become exaggerated, weaponized, and inverted. His Secretaries were not chosen for their qualifications, or to run their departments with integrity. They were chosen for their willingness to protect what Trump wants not be seen. For some, they are holding the same secrets. Individual secretaries have specific components of Trump’s agenda or plan, including those secretive parts. Perhaps none of them know everything that’s going on. However, these secretaries are already standing in the way of justice.
The Cabinet Secretary Has Become A Shield
When Trump appointed Pete Hegseth, he did not choose Hegseth for being any kind of military tactician. Nobody would confuse Pete Hegseth for Sun Tzu, if you know what I’m saying. He isn’t the pointiest crayon in the box. Hegseth ain’t exactly Dwight D. Eisenhower. You get the picture. Hegseth is more like a personal firewall for Trump.
Hegseth: a FOX News TV personality with a history of drinking, womanizing, and clout-chasing under a thin veneer of patriotism – isn’t just unqualified. He’s perfectly unqualified for an administration like this. Hegseth is not just a dull knife in the junk drawer, but a knife deliberately dull to make sure it can’t be used against the hand that placed it there.
Why Hegseth? Who really knows what secrets he’s holding already. I’ve heard it said by fringe liberals that he was chosen for being white. That’s a convenient narrative but there are plenty of other more qualified white men if that were it. There are hundreds of white men more qualified to serve as Secretary of Defense. But Trump doesn’t want a defense expert. Quite the contrary. He wants somebody who will follow orders or not even need to be given them. A guy who can’t manage a budget, so he wouldn’t be held accountable for missing money. Or at least, he could be a stooge if need be.
He’s Not A Mad King He’s A Bad King
Trump wanted a devotionalist – someone whose blind loyalty would never let him question the real plans being made behind closed doors.
Whether it’s threatening military action for private gain, allowing shady deployments, or Trump floating grotesque ideas like turning Gaza into beachfront property post-cleansing, Hegseth’s job is not to lead troops. His job is to take the heat, hold the secrets, and shield the President.
If he’s leaked or been the source of leaking critical military secrets? What kinds of secrets do you think he’s still keeping?
SignalGate: Was An Oath of Silence Broken?
The so-called SignalGate incident – where a private encrypted chats featuring high-level figures like Hegseth, the Secretary of State, and the VP was leaked – has many more questions than answers at this point. We don’t yet know who leaked it even though it looks like Mike Waltz put Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic on the communication. Nobody there seemed to notice, though, and perhaps Goldberg is not as much of an opponent of Trump as it seems. We don’t yet know if this was intentional, or an internal betrayal. That may remain to be seen years later.
What we do know is this: Trump is responsible.
Yet there are calls to have Hegseth resign. Not calls to impeach Trump over it.
Our commander in chief is directly accountable for the operational integrity of the military. Also, nobody seemed to suspect Trump had anything to do with this “leak” and I find that quite strange.
Lying, Loyalty, and the Paradox of Truth
We live in a time where most Americans understand the concept of lying for someone.
It’s a form of loyalty, a warped virtue in politics. Trump opponents assume that his Secretaries would lie for him. That’s why so many of them do interviews constantly. It defies a certain kind of logic that they prey upon. If they keep talking, and the press keeps covering them, they can set pace or control the narrative. The second you don’t hear from them, people can start making up their own mind about what they are doing which would be bad for them because eventually somebody would say the truth.
So, the most damaging secrets, are kept silent. Silence is the greatest weapon when a high stakes white collar criminal syndicate like this is operating in plain sight or public life. That creates a paradox: If they did tell the truth, who would believe them?
This is the genius of Trump’s appointments. His Cabinet is made of people who are so obviously dishonest that if one of them ever did break rank, it would sound like revenge, not revelation. They’ve been discredited by design.
So if Hegseth did leak something, it’s unbelievable.
And if someone else did, Hegseth’s very presence in the chat tarnishes the whole thing as theater, gossip, or Trumpian chaos – rather than strategic exposure.
A Network of Vaults, Not Visionaries
This is how Trump governs. Plausible deniability built on a human firewall of loyal fools and dangerous partisans. Fake opponents. Lots of secrets.
Each Secretary becomes:
- A trusted vault of secrets they are either unqualified to understand or too loyal to ever question.
- A fall guy in the event of exposure.
- A narrative weapon – because in the post-truth landscape, merely being associated with Trump can strip your words of credibility.
At this point you may think to yourself something like, “duh, I knew that.” But no, you did not. You may have imagined that Secretaries of departments are entrusted with things that you’ll never hear, but you were unlikely to know that the root of the word has to do more with secrecy than it does competence in management or leadership.
So to that end, ask yourself this, “what secrets are these secretaries still keeping?”
And how many of those secrets are actually a threat to national security?
How loyal do you think they will be, when push comes to shove?
I say, we find out…
