At least in theory, White House Cabinet secretaries have weighty day jobs that are supposed to keep them awfully busy. Also in theory, there are federal ethics laws that prevent these powerful officials away from partisan political activities.

In practice, however, the Trump White House — indifferent to ethical limits, norms and legal restrictions — increasingly sees Cabinet secretaries as little more than pieces on an electoral chess board to be moved around to the benefit of the Republican Party.

It’s why we’ve seen Attorney General Todd Blanche playing an unprecedented partisan role in the midterm elections, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth making unprecedented appearances on the campaign trail in support of select GOP candidates, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. making all kinds of unprecedented appearances with vulnerable Republican incumbents and even trying to orchestrate partisan strategies to give GOP lawmakers a boost.

Making matters worse are new allegations about the nature of RFK Jr.’s travel arrangements. The Washington Post reported:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was given access to military aircraft for his travels across the country, including as part of Republicans’ push ahead of the midterm elections, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his travel.

Kennedy flew aboard a military jet as he joined Iowa GOP candidates in that state last month, two of those people said.

The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, noted that a commercial flight between Washington, D.C., and Des Moines, Iowa, costs roughly $250. Using an Air Force-operated Gulfstream jet, as Kennedy apparently did last month, costs about $9,000 per hour.

The White House, as well as lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly signed off on the flight arrangements. The White House and HHS declined the Post’s request for comment.

In fairness, no one has suggested that RFK Jr. only relied on military aircraft for travel, but if the reporting is correct, it did happen, and it generates all sorts of questions that have not yet been answered. Why, for example, is Kennedy taking on the role of a campaign operative instead of focusing on his job? Why would he use military planes? Did he perceive this as some kind of electoral emergency that required him to bypass commercial airlines? Is there any chance American taxpayers can get reimbursed for his publicly funded campaign trips?

But stepping back, I’m also struck by the familiarity of the circumstances.

In Donald Trump’s first term, a surprising number of Cabinet secretaries were caught up in similar controversies, including then-HHS Secretary Tom Price, who was forced to resign just seven months into his tenure following revelations that he relied on taxpayer-financed private flights with unnerving frequency. A year later, the public learned that then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also relied on military flights for reasons the administration struggled to explain. Then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke faced a plane-related controversy of his own.

With this in mind, the Post’s report noted that White House officials, in Trump’s first term, “set new restrictions on Cabinet officials’ use of private jets.” In his second term, however, “the president has been more permissive with some Cabinet officials’ travel, even as FBI Director Kash Patel and other senior officials have drawn scrutiny over their use of government jets.”

In other words, confronted with an embarrassing controversy about abusive and wasteful spending nine years ago, Team Trump put restrictions in place. Nearly a decade later, Team Trump is no longer bothering with these safeguards, creating predictable results.

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