If Donald Trump was to again become President, it would be hard to imagine anyone with an impressive background who would be willing to join his staff. The most competent members of Trump's first administration left early on in his first term.
Jim Mattis, a four-star Marine General, served as Trump's Defense Secretary from 2017-2019. And he's ripped the Former President in the past. In a 2020 open letter to The Atlantic, Mattis wrote of Trump:
"He tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."
In a new book, The Situation Room: The True Story of Presidents in Crisis, George Stephanopoulos writes about some former Trump Cabinet members and how they felt about him.
Quoting former Homeland Security Director Tom Bosster, He writes, “Anybody with sense – somebody like Mattis or [former Trump Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson – they immediately shunned and stayed away from Trump."
He continues, "I mean, you couldn’t get Mattis into the White House. His view was, ‘That’s a madman in a circular room screaming. And the less time I spend in there, the more time I can just go about my business.’"