In President Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry are Eagle Scouts. Are there others?
The president’s Cabinet is made up of the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments, according to the White House website.
Of those 16 people, two are women, so we can eliminate them as Eagle Scouts. Of the 14 men, there are four Eagle Scouts among Trump’s appointees.
We know about former Gov. Rick Perry, who earned his Eagle Scout rank with a troop in Paint Creek in Haskell County.
Tillerson, the brother of Abilenian Dr. Rae Ann Hamilton, also served as the Boy Scouts of America's national president, the organization’s top volunteer position, from 2010 to 2012.
The other two Eagle Scouts in the Cabinet are Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
Among the many, many Eagle Scouts in politics have been U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. And there was Gerald Ford, the only Eagle Scout to be president.
Readers’ questions are answered Mondays through Thursdays. Send them to larrytheanswerguy@reporternews.com or Larry Zelisko at P.O. Box 30, Abilene TX 79604.
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