Commentary By Stephen Macaulay

One of the things that was long characteristic of conservatives is they had moral principles. They believed in honesty and decency in terms of how they would behave. There were ethical standards manifest in their behavior.

Now. . .not so much.

Thanks to the example set by Donald J. Trump, behavior — public and private — is more transactional. And everything is a zero-sum game.

Rules, vetting, consideration of consequences — none of these things matter much, if at all.

This is evident in what has happened of late in terms of turnover among people who Trump had appointed and who have left their positions under, let’s say, a cloud. To be sure there are job changes occurring all the time, everywhere, but in these cases it points to the fact there was little evidence that qualification and probity matter.

First there is Kristi Noem, who had been Secretary of Homeland Security. She was fired in March 2026. One of the reasons may have had something to do with her dismissing the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota by ICE agents as the victims being associated with “domestic terrorism,” which she probably didn’t believe herself.

But that was unlikely to have been the tipping point in her cabinet career. Rather, it was likely the $220-million ad campaign regarding border security which featured Noem on horseback, like she was going to be riding the line to keep the border safe.

That focus, and that task, is something her boss holds for himself, so he put her in the position of special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, and after the six months in that job ran out, she became the senior advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. All of which seems like Swamp-like behavior, slithering from one pond to another. But at least she’s out of the limelight.

One remarkable thing is that the ads recently run starring none other than Donald J. Trump, paid for by you and me, only had a tab of $19 million, less than a tenth of what Noem spent — but that $19 million came out of the budget for the Department of Homeland Security.

Then there is Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former US Ambassador to Greece. She held that office for just under a year, far less than the amount of time she dated, and was eventually engaged to, Donald Trump, Jr., which was about 6.5 years. (Again, isn’t there the whiff of Swamp?)

Guilfoyle allegedly asked a Republican donor to pay off her personal American Express credit card bill -- $100,000. (“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today.”) 

Allegedly there was a promise to the donor that she would help him out with some tax and legal problems he was having. She denies all of this. But Trump asked her to resign.

Then there is Katie Zacharia, the White House press secretary who held the position for five days. While there was considerable questioning of her handling of her first (and only) press briefing, a bigger issue was her claim, on more than one occasion, to being a lawyer. Yes, she went to law school. Yes, she graduated from law school. But according to The Wall Street Journal, she took the bar exam in California and didn’t pass. Which means she is not a lawyer.

Zacharia was Trump Media Communications advisor for a few months before getting the position in the White House and was a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security for a few weeks (February 2026 to March 2026).

But she never practiced law because, well, she wasn’t qualified to practice law, despite having claimed to be a lawyer. Even President Trump referred to her as an “attorney.”

Here was a person who was to explain to the press and by extension the American people what is going on in the Oval Office who lied about being a lawyer — which is illegal in California, where Zacharia resides. 

In a world where standards applied there is little likelihood that any of these people — one who is evidently rather self-centered; one who likes to spend but not personally pay; one who misrepresents her qualifications — would have ever gotten these important jobs.

Someone signed off on their getting those jobs and someone, as in Donald J. Trump, put the final Sharpie signature on their getting the OK.

But in a world where standards are totally flexible, anything evidently goes.

And conservatism as a guiding position has gone with it.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.