If Trump started with a different Cabinet...

[Heebie Jeebie]

Since Day 1, the Trump administration has had some personnel problems, to say the least.  But what if he started his presidency with these heads of the various departments...

President:  Donald Trump (NY)
Vice President:  Mike Pence (IN)
Secretary of State:  Rand Paul (KY)
Secretary of Treasury:  Nikki Haley (SC)
Secretary of Defense:  Tom Cotton (AR)
Attorney General:  Mike Lee (UT)
Secretary of the Interior:  Joe Heck (NV)
Secretary of Agriculture:  Eric Hovde (WI)
Secretary of Commerce:  Sam Rohrer (PA)
Secretary of Labor:  Terri Lynn Land (MI)
Secretary of Health and Human Services:  Karen Handel (GA)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:  Scott Smith (AZ)
Secretary of Transportation:  Connie Mack IV (FL)
Secretary of Energy:  Pat McCrory (NC)
Secretary of Education:  Kurt Bills (MN)
Secretary of Veterans Affairs:  Charlie Summers (ME)
Secretary of Homeland Security:  Kelly Ayotte (NH)

I can't help but think that picks like these would have made everything run much more smoothly, and Trump could have avoided at least some of the conflict and scandal that's actually characterized his presidency.  What do you think?

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway. For one thing many of Trumps problems are caused by him and secondly he would probably grow tired of some of them and move on from them.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Cotton and Paul would always be sparring over foreign policy.

[Pericles]

A problem there is too many Senators going into cabinet and leading to special elections, while AR, UT, and KY are normally Safe R there is potential for another MA-2010 or AL-2017, especially with 3 opportunities for that being provided instead of just 1. An alternate Trump cabinet is an interesting scenario, though the biggest problem Trump has is Trump himself of course, but this cabinet probably wouldn't turn out well either.

[morgankingsley]

I would be curious to see a timeline where Trump managed to win the popular vote in 2016, therefore giving his presidency more of a 'mandate' right away

[Pericles]

I would be curious to see a timeline where Trump managed to win the popular vote in 2016, therefore giving his presidency more of a 'mandate' right away

The Democrats wouldn't have been any more supportive of Trump's agenda, and Republicans already acted like they had a huge mandate. Perhaps the Russia investigation would be less significant if the election wasn't as close, but even then it was considered something worth focusing on by a lot of people (and imo it was a legitimate concern). The most interesting part of this scenario would be down-ballot ramifications, and if the Republicans had 1 or 2 more Senate seats the healthcare debate may have gone very differently.