Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the VA Doug Collins, President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel. (Getty Images)
A physician, former Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university's Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination.
Under Bhattacharya's tenure, he has been forced to defend certain funding cuts tied to academic research and staffing. One of the core components Bhattacharya indicated that he wanted to pursue following his confirmation was to usher in a new age of "gold standard science."
"I think fundamentally what matters is do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they're in?" Bhattacharya said during his March confirmation testimony. "Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the health needs of Americans?"
Secretary of State Marco Rubio serves in four different roles with the administration. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats in May, the White House reflected in a comment to Fox News Digital on former President Joe Biden's "disaster of a Cabinet."
"Democrats cheered on Joe Biden’s disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents and more," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital in May. "President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented individuals he trusts to manage many responsibilities."
The Trump administration has repeatedly brushed off concerns over Rubio holding multiple roles, most notably juggling both his State Department leadership and serving as acting national security advisor. Similarly, former President Richard Nixon in 1973 named National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to simultaneously serve as Secretary of State.
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"You need a team player who is very honest with the president and the senior team, not someone trying to build an empire or wield a knife or drive their own agenda," an administration official told Politico. "He is singularly focused on delivering the president’s agenda."
Despite Democratic rhetoric that Rubio was taking on too many roles, the former Florida senator helped oversee successful U.S. strikes on Iran in June, which destroyed a trio of nuclear sites and decimated the country's efforts to advance its nuclear program.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who railed against the "deep state" and vowed to strip corruption from the federal law enforcement agency ahead of his confirmation, was briefly charged with overseeing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February after the Biden-era director resigned in January 2025.
Trump tapped Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to temporarily lead NASA. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Prior to Trump's inauguration in January 2025, the president announced he would be nominating Isaacman but later withdrew his nomination in May before the full Senate confirmed him. Trump said the decision followed a review of Isaacman's "prior associations," pointing to money he has given to Democrats. However, Isaacman suggested at the time that the recission of his nomination may have been due to his connections to Elon Musk, who was running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the time.
Duffy replaced Janet Petro, who had served as acting NASA administrator since Trump's inauguration.
Driscoll was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in February. The secretary of the army is a senior-level civilian official charged with overseeing the management of the Army and also acts as an advisor to the secretary of defense in matters related to the Army.
It was reported in April that Driscoll was named acting ATF director, replacing Patel in that role.
Former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins was sworn in as the Trump administration's secretary of Veterans Affairs in February. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
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The Office of Government Ethics is charged with overseeing the executive branch's ethics program, including setting ethics standards for the government and monitoring ethics compliance across federal agencies and departments.
The Office of Special Counsel is charged with overseeing and protecting the federal government's merit system, most notably ensuring federal whistleblowers don't face retaliation for sounding the alarm on an issue they've experienced. The office also has an established secure channel to allow federal employees to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing.
The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch staffers, except the president and vice president, from engaging in certain forms of political activity.
Trump's trade representative, Jamieson Greer, has also been tapped for multiple roles within the administration, in addition to helping lead the administration's tariff negotiations to bring parity to the chronic U.S. trade deficit with other nations.
Greer took on Collins' roles as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics and as acting special counsel of the Office of Special Counsel April 1.
Russell Vought serves as director of the Office of Management and Budget. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The CFPB is an independent government agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created in 2010 under the Obama administration after the financial crash in 2008. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally proposed and advocated for the creation of the agency.
The CFPB came under fierce investigation from the Department of Government Efficiency in February, with mass terminations rocking the agency before the reduction in force initiative was tied up in court.
Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell also serves as special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump's former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under his first term, a pair of roles held at separate times in the first administration, currently serves as president of the Kennedy Center and special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States.
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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. Trump notably serves as the center's chair of the board, and Grenell said the center will see a "golden age" of the arts during Trump's second administration through productions and concerts that Americans actually want to see after years of the performing arts center running in the red.
Trump named Grenell as his special presidential envoy for special missions to the United States in December 2024 before his inauguration, saying Grenell will "work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea."
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In this role, Grenell helped lead the administration through its response to the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the last days of the Biden administration through the beginning days of the Trump administration.
Fox News Digital's Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-nih-director-isnt-only-one-wearing-multiple-hats-during-presidents-second-term