{"id":22816,"date":"2020-11-02T22:31:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T22:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/11\/02\/trump-tests-limits-as-cabinet-members-fan-out-to-key-states\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:02:27","slug":"trump-tests-limits-as-cabinet-members-fan-out-to-key-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2020\/11\/02\/trump-tests-limits-as-cabinet-members-fan-out-to-key-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tests limits as Cabinet members fan out to key states"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos planned a \u201cMoms for Trump\u201d rally in her home state of Michigan. The Department of Homeland Security\u2019s top official was in Texas to celebrate completion of a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency headed to North Carolina after visiting Georgia the day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was just Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Members of President Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet are logging extra miles as mostly unofficial campaign surrogates in crucial states in the final days before Tuesday\u2019s election, blending politics and policy in ways that critics say skirt established norms and may even violate the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s long been one of the benefits of incumbency that a president can enlist his Cabinet to promote administration accomplishments. But only to a point, with a law on the books since 1939 requiring a division between political and official activities for all federal employees except the president and vice president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Trump administration has completely obliterated that line,\u201d said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, which describes itself as a nonpartisan watchdog organization. \u201cThe White House is now the seat of government, where the president lives, and one of his chief campaign props. And that erosion of norms has spread throughout the entire administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/2020\/08\/27\/the-hatch-act-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-impact-feds\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635695463470389701-photo-gaveljpeg.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Hatch Act: What is it? And how does it impact feds?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Hatch Act is designed to ensure that the work of federal civil servants is not influenced by political motivations.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This criticism isn\u2019t new, but it\u2019s intensified in recent months. The administration, which came under fire for using the White House as a backdrop for the president\u2019s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, insists it is adhering to the law known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/2020\/08\/27\/the-hatch-act-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-impact-feds\/\" target=_blank>the Hatch Act<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Trump administration takes the Hatch Act seriously and all events are conducted in compliance with the law,\u201d White House spokesman Judd Deere said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But already, at least one member of the administration has run afoul of the decades-old law in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Office of Special Counsel, led by a Trump appointee, concluded this month that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/2020\/10\/08\/agriculture-secretary-violated-hatch-act-by-backing-trump-reelection\/\" target=_blank>Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue violated the law<\/a> at a North Carolina event in August where his remarks in support of the president devolved into crowd chants of \u201cfour more years.\u201d Perdue was ordered to reimburse the government for costs associated with the trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe turned an official event into a campaign one,\u201d by tying aid to farmers to reelecting Trump, said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which filed complaint with that federal office over Perdue\u2019s appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"Ivanka Trump, right, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, left, speak with a farming family during a visit to the North Carolina State Farmers Market in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 10, 2020.\" class=\"wp-image-53721\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,682 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20254751105603.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ivanka Trump, right, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, left, speak with a farming family during a visit to the North Carolina State Farmers Market in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 10, 2020. (Gerry Broome\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could be next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two New York Democrats, Reps. Eliot L. Engel and Rep. Nita Lowey, said this week that the same office was investigating the speech that America\u2019s top diplomat made to the GOP convention from Israel. The office declined comment and the State Department noted that a previous Hatch Act complaint against Pompeo was dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That Pompeo speech was among a number of appearances, including one in September in Wisconsin, that appeared to many observers to cast aside a long tradition of avoiding partisan politics by secretaries of state. But he\u2019s hardly alone, and the examples have proliferated in recent days. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2020\/09\/06\/democrats-request-hatch-act-probe-of-republican-convention\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20241146683208.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Democrats request Hatch Act probe of Republican convention<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are seeking an investigation into what they call repeated violations of the federal Hatch Act by members of the Trump administration during last month\u2019s Republican National Convention.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette this week was visiting southwestern Pennsylvania \u2014 a swing area in one of the most important battleground states \u2014 for at least the third time since August. In an area closely tied to fracking, Brouillette didn\u2019t mention Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by name but warned that efforts to develop renewable energy to address climate change could threaten \u201cevery form of energy besides renewables.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler has made repeated trips to closely contested Michigan, including one to announce $2 million in grant funding, where he criticized the Obama administration\u2019s response to the lead contamination crisis in Flint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeVos has made frequent visits to pivotal states such as Florida, Texas and Wisconsin, for discussions of efforts to reopen schools closed by the coronavirus pandemic and to promote school choice, an issue that Trump has focused on in hopes of appealing to Black voters. The announcement of her appearance at Thursday\u2019s \u201cMoms for Trump\u201d rally in Detroit referred to her as the \u201cHonorable Betsy DeVos,\u201d not as education secretary for a clearly political event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was in South Texas to mark completion of 400 miles of border wall, one of the central themes of the Trump 2016 campaign. Wolf also has drawn scrutiny by holding news conferences in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to announce relatively minor immigration operations. American Oversight, in a letter Thursday, urged the Office of Special Counsel to investigate Wolf and other DHS officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie has traveled to a host of presidential and Senate battleground states in recent months, mixing in dedication ceremonies and other official business with a \u201cfireside chat\u201d and praise of vulnerable GOP incumbents. His activity has received criticism from congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other examples include national security adviser Robert O\u2019Brien traveling to Minnesota and Wisconsin this month to discuss trade; senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller holding a conference call Wednesday with reporters and speaking \u201cin his personal capacity\u201d to discuss immigration policy; and Kayleigh McEnany doing double duty as White House press secretary and \u201cTrump 2020 campaign adviser,\u201d as she was described in an appearance on \u201cFox &amp; Friends\u201d on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hatch Act violations can be referred to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, but more typically result in administrative penalties. Evers, a former litigator and government lawyer, said lower-level staff should be concerned about the possible legal consequences of working on barely concealed political missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There could be electoral consequences as well. \u201cThe political calculation that go into these decisions could be very wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should matter to the public that their apolitical government is being used for purely partisan ends. So it may not have the payoff they expect.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Associated Press writers Collin Binkley in Boston, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Ellen Knickmeyer and Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of President Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet are logging extra miles as mostly unofficial campaign surrogates in crucial states in the final days before Tuesday&#8217;s election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,15,68,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2120],"class_list":["post-22816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-leadership","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XKLAMJXSENANVPJNGTSCWVN5PY","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/leadership\/2020\/11\/02\/trump-tests-limits-as-cabinet-members-fan-out-to-key-states\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump tests limits as Cabinet members fan out to key states - Federal Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Members of President Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet are logging extra miles as mostly unofficial campaign surrogates in crucial states in the final days before Tuesday&#039;s election.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump tests limits as Cabinet members fan out to key states\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Members of President Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet are logging extra miles as mostly unofficial campaign surrogates in crucial states in the final days before Tuesday&#039;s election.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2020\/11\/02\/trump-tests-limits-as-cabinet-members-fan-out-to-key-states\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Federal Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-02T22:31:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T05:02:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Fox, The Associated Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Fox, The Associated Press\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    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