Trump decides to let Trump be Trump
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| Trump be Trump |
When Donald Trump was elected president, there was modest comfort in knowing the executive branch is made up of some 4,000 presidential appointees, 1,200 of whom must be confirmed by the Senate and 630 of whom fill top-tier agency positions. The hope was that Trump would get himself some honest, competent help.
With some exceptions, that has not proved to be the case. Hundreds of jobs went unfilled for a year or more, including 240 top-three agency officials. Regulatory jobs went to alumni of regulated industries. Key West Wing jobs turned over as the White House turned into a human resources merry-go-round.
Now Trump is into a new phase of personnel changes, purging people who have said “no” to him once too often or people who have embarrassed him with bad headlines about ethical problems. The irony of that speaks for itself.
White House sources have told the New York Times and the Washington Post that the president has decided that after 14 months in office, he can get by on his trusted gut. He makes decisions, he once said, “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.”
So last week he replaced his top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, with former CNBC talking head Larry Kudlow. Cohn told Trump “no” too many times on trade issues. Kudlow is a true believer in trickle-down economics, which on TV gave him an almost unblemished record of being wrong on big economic stories. But he was on TV, which is a key credential for Trump.
Trump last week also replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who told him “no” a lot, with CIA director Mike Pompeo, the former congressman from Koch Industries in Wichita, Kan.
To replace Pompeo at the CIA, Trump’s gut led him to agency veteran Gina Haspel, who played a big role in the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” of terrorist detainees. Trump’s gut has told him “waterboarding works,” though studies say otherwise.
Next on the hit list could be Housing Secretary Ben Carson, not because of his deep lack of understanding of housing issues but because his wife’s insistence on $31,000 worth of office furniture caused embarrassing headlines. The same kind of headlines could cost high-flying Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin his job.
After that could come a third national security adviser. Trump has had it with the intellect and restraint of Gen. H.R. McMaster, who replaced Gen. Michael Flynn, who was caught lying about what he told the Russian ambassador.
Even with competent people around him, however briefly, Trump’s first 14 months have been chaotic. Now he’s staffing up with sycophants. Trump Unleashed is a profoundly disturbing thought.
With some exceptions, that has not proved to be the case. Hundreds of jobs went unfilled for a year or more, including 240 top-three agency officials. Regulatory jobs went to alumni of regulated industries. Key West Wing jobs turned over as the White House turned into a human resources merry-go-round.
Now Trump is into a new phase of personnel changes, purging people who have said “no” to him once too often or people who have embarrassed him with bad headlines about ethical problems. The irony of that speaks for itself.
White House sources have told the New York Times and the Washington Post that the president has decided that after 14 months in office, he can get by on his trusted gut. He makes decisions, he once said, “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.”
So last week he replaced his top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, with former CNBC talking head Larry Kudlow. Cohn told Trump “no” too many times on trade issues. Kudlow is a true believer in trickle-down economics, which on TV gave him an almost unblemished record of being wrong on big economic stories. But he was on TV, which is a key credential for Trump.
Trump last week also replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who told him “no” a lot, with CIA director Mike Pompeo, the former congressman from Koch Industries in Wichita, Kan.
To replace Pompeo at the CIA, Trump’s gut led him to agency veteran Gina Haspel, who played a big role in the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” of terrorist detainees. Trump’s gut has told him “waterboarding works,” though studies say otherwise.
Next on the hit list could be Housing Secretary Ben Carson, not because of his deep lack of understanding of housing issues but because his wife’s insistence on $31,000 worth of office furniture caused embarrassing headlines. The same kind of headlines could cost high-flying Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin his job.
After that could come a third national security adviser. Trump has had it with the intellect and restraint of Gen. H.R. McMaster, who replaced Gen. Michael Flynn, who was caught lying about what he told the Russian ambassador.
Even with competent people around him, however briefly, Trump’s first 14 months have been chaotic. Now he’s staffing up with sycophants. Trump Unleashed is a profoundly disturbing thought.
