During the Biden years, ­Republicans skewered Xavier Becerra — a career litigator and politician — as incompetent and unsuited to serve as health and human services secretary.

Oh, for the days of mere incompetence.

Donald Trump’s HHS presents something far more absurd.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has married ineptitude to pet obsessions, producing a goat rodeo for the ages.

New week, new mess: purgings, resignations, policy reversals, conflicts of interest, elimination of transparency.

The agencies Kennedy oversees — the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health — already had problems after years of politicization and squandered credibility.

Now they have problems on RFK levels of testosterone.

RFK’s MAHA base will seek to make this about ideology, to claim their hero is being attacked because of his views.

Those views certainly provoke criticism, but that isn’t the root of the problem.

Strip away how one feels about food dyes or processed food, COVID boosters or failed “experts,” and you are still left with a mess.

Consider the HHS secretary on the metrics of good (political) business: strategic goals, performance, customer satisfaction.

Especially as this agency oversees a quarter of federal spending.

One big problem: RFK alone among Trump’s Cabinet members is pursuing his own agenda, not the president’s vision.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio moves at warp speed to implement Trump’s goal of reduced foreign aid.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is cutting deals to hand more food-stamp flexibility over to states — just as Trump promised.

The heads of the Interior and Energy departments and the Environmental Protection Agency are revamping entire rule books to unleash American energy.

Kennedy?

He’s perusing lists of his trial-lawyer friends, deciding whom to award influential government positions.

You’re forgiven if you don’t remember Trump’s campaign promise to empower Kennedy’s litigator set.

Performance?

Nothing is getting done, in part because Kennedy can’t put together or keep a team.

Most GOP Cabinet officials struggle with the career staff they inherit.

Kennedy can’t manage his own political hires.

How many weeks occupied the question of whether FDA official Vinay Prasad was forced out or rehired?

And Kennedy is hardly being sabotaged by CDC nominees — since they were his people.

He proposed former Rep. Dave Weldon for the job, a nomination Trump was forced to pull after controversy.

RFK in July personally swore in the new CDC director, Susan Monarez, raving about her “unimpeachable scientific credentials” — only to fire her less than a month later.

Trump is complaining about delays in getting his nominees confirmed, but by all means, let’s jam up the calendar with a third CDC nominee for the year.

If Kennedy can’t find anyone to work with, it’s because he’s one of the only Trump Cabinet officials who divide the base.

The Make America Healthy Movement has gained some steam, mostly because of the Kennedy perch.

But if there is a minority of HHS “customers” that gets jazzed by a raw-milk debate, there are many more (including Republicans) who find Kennedy a quack or would appreciate if he devoted even a few minutes to improving their Medicare experience.

And literally no one feels more confidence right now in the CDC or FDA — since no one knows who is in charge or how they are going to reverse themselves next.

You can count Kennedy’s genuine GOP supporters in the Senate on one hand — even if their colleagues are too chicken to say anything publicly.

This is overshadowing Trump successes.

Are we talking this week about how the administration cut crime in Washington, or GOP plans for housing?

No.

We are talking about a Kennedy mess. Again.

And while no Republican leader expects the mainstream media to say nice things about the party’s work, there are “good” bad headlines (the kind that make conservatives cheer), and all-bad headlines (the kind that make conservatives question GOP competence).

Kennedy’s headlines are of the latter type, and they are making it too easy for critics to smear the entire administration.

An NBC News write-up this week explained that RFK’s agenda was part of a “Trump 2.0 pattern” that included EPA’s “rejection of long-established scientific principles” like “climate change.”

That’s deeply unfair to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is accomplishing years of reform in months — and until now with only the good kind of bad headlines.

That comparison holds across the board.

Trump presumably has to see that one of his departments looks decidedly unlike the others.

And that this situation isn’t going to improve or settle down.

The question is how long he allows this exercise in political self-harm to continue.

The president honored a rival’s endorsement by giving him a top job.

But no Cabinet position is a sinecure, and Kennedy has had his trial run.

There are plenty of other bold transformers that can take that job.

Maybe it’s time for some interviews.

From The Wall Street Journal.