Don’t need no stinkin ethics training
President Donald Trump’s team rejected a course for senior White House staff, Cabinet nominees and other political appointees that would have provided training on leadership, ethics and management, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
I guess they were too busy watching Fox News and playing golf.
The documents suggest the program could have better prepared officials for working within existing laws and executive orders, and provided guidance on how to navigate Senate confirmation for nominees and political appointees, how to deal with congressional and media scrutiny, and how to work with Congress and collaborate with agencies — some of the same issues that have become major stumbling blocks in the early days of the administration.
But the contract was never awarded because after the election the transition team shifted its priorities, according to a letter the General Services Administration sent to bidders such as the Partnership for Public Service. The program was expected to cost $1 million, the documents show. The contract-based training program was authorized in 2000, and the Obama and Bush transitions both received the training.
But Trump has the most scorching case of Dunning-Kruger in the history of the world, so naturally he assumes he knows everything already. Why learn anything when you’re already the smartest and most informed guy in the world?
The Trump team has said it was determined not to spend all of its transition funds, and it returned millions to the government. To some Republicans, the program could be seen as wasteful.
Oh for christ’s sake. Penny wise pound foolish, people! Ethics training is not the place to scrimp, especially in the case of Trump & Gang.
The lack of training likely fueled a series of early missteps in the presidency, as aides fired off executive orders and new rules without briefing Congress or their peers at agencies.
“It looks like a good program, and I wish they had implemented it,” said Norm Eisen, a White House ethics lawyer in the Obama administration who now leads the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It might have spared them the numerous ethics and other messes they have encountered.”
But noooooooooooooo, because they know better than everybody.
Well, that’s the Fanatical Alternative Knowledge Expounding President for you.
I’m cynical enough to believe it might not have done them any good. I don’t think it would have cured or even softened the fundamental dishonesty that so many of them seem to exhibit. It might have given them a bit of polish and kept them out of the rough. But I think I’d rather have the unvarnished, out-in-the-open awfulness than a slightly camouflaged awfulness hiding under a thin veneer of ersatz competence.
I’m with not Bruce. I think the Donald simply decided if ethics doesn’t apply to the President (his weird understanding of that ONE issue of putting his businesses in a blind trust, right?) then apparently it didn’t apply to any of his team, either.
Ethics gets in the way of personal enrichment, and this administration was never about much of anything else that I can tell. When you’re king, why do you need to worry about what the little people think? They’re just supposed to stand and cheer….and cheer….and cheer….while King Donnie counts how many minutes his applause lasts.
There’s a pattern here where Donald cannot ever admit to needing to learn anything; and the people around him also cannot ever admit to needing to learn anything. Ergo none of them will ever do any training or accept any information.
The one thing that may save the world from this rolling disaster is that they aren’t actually competent to carry out their evil plans.
I think the folks, and there are many, who say they want someone in the white house who is just like them, have him. They too, know more than anyone else about everything, until you ask for details.
Ah, zubanel, you see, that’s the thing. Details are for coastal elites, not for real Americans (because, of course, coastal elites are faux Americans, as opposed to Fox Americans, the cadre of voters who get everything from Fox news).
And the media is going along with too much; if I read one more article about how the country overwhelmingly voted for Trump and his policies, I may explode. Much of the media seems quite willing to ignore the fact that MORE PEOPLE VOTED FOR HILLARY THAN FOR TRUMP, which means the Trump team should be humble and statesmanlike, recognizing that they are running through a minefield. They are nothing of the sort, continuing to insist, against all evidence, that those numbers are “fake news”. And evolution, climate change, and dirty water are “fake science” – oh, wait, what was that phrase Dubya used? – “junk science”.
We’re in a lot of trouble. Which would be bad if we were a small country with little global impact, but because we are the largest nuclear nation, and an enormous economy/military with such a global spread, it’s worse than bad – it’s terrible (to quote Trump, if I may be so bold).
Interesting comment here that Trump is pro-business, not pro-market.
Ie; he is for crony capitalism, or what Adam Smith called mercantilism.
http://evonomics.com/donald-trumps-economic-policies-market-zingales/
Ethics are for effete coastal elites.
Lady Mondegreen @ 8,actually you’re spot on. Everybody else understands that having power is licence to enrich yourself and your friends, cement your position at the top of the heap and exact revenge and punishment on all others.
(comment may contain some generalisation)