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| - Since July 2023, the claim that "40 of 44" members of Trump's former cabinet refused to endorse his 2024 bid for the presidency has spread across several social media platforms, including X and Facebook. A popular iteration of the claim circulates in the form of a meme featuring former Trump administration headshots:
"The rest of the country probably needs to see that for the flashing red flag that it is," this and similar iterations of the claim read.
For several reasons, this claim is false. The numbers come from a July 2023 report from NBC News that was made in advance of the 2024 GOP primary contest. As the outlet reported, its reporters attempted to reach as many former Trump administration officials as possible, and only four affirmatively stated they supported his run at that time:
NBC News reached out to 44 of the dozens of people who served in Trump's Cabinet over his term in office. Most declined to comment or ignored the requests. A total of four have said publicly they support his run for re-election.
Several have been coy about where they stand, stopping short of endorsing Trump with the GOP primary race underway. Then there are those who outright oppose his bid for the GOP nomination or are adamant that they don't want him back in power.
Describing a pool of 40 people primarily composed of those who "declined to comment" or "ignored" a request to comment before the GOP primaries as those who actively "refused" to endorse his candidacy is a distortion of an out-of-date figure. Of the 44 individuals NBC contacted, these four affirmatively endorsed him in July 2023:
Those backing Trump's bid for another term include former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker; Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff; former budget chief Russell Vought; and former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, who in June tweeted "Trump 2024" above a tweet from Trump's main GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Several of the people who made no statement in the July 2023 NBC News report did publicly endorse Trump prior to the November 2024 presidential election. In August 2024, the Washington Post tracked the positions of 42 former members of Trump's cabinet. They concluded more than half (24 of 42) supported his run for President at that time:
In total, The Post reached out to all 42 members of Trump's Cabinet, asking each of them whether they supported his presidential bid. Twenty responded. Twenty-two didn't, but we were able to determine through public statements that nine of them backed Trump's candidacy and two didn't.
As the Post reported, the list of former cabinet members supporting the president is significantly larger than four, and includes several people wrongly included in viral images shared alongside the meme. That list includes former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Because the absence of an endorsement is not a refusal to endorse, and because more than half of Trump's former cabinet did, in fact, ultimately support Trump's general election run for president in 2024, the claim is false.
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