To maximize the humiliation
The day before Trump fired Shulkin in a tweet, the Post reported that Shulkin knew it was coming but didn’t know when.
The uncertainty has left the leader of the federal government’s second-largest agency, its employees, and even senior White House officials wondering if Shulkin still officially speaks for VA. It has raised questions, too, about what’s being done to restore order at the agency after weeks of turmoil have left little doubt that Shulkin, the lone Obama administration holdover in Trump’s Cabinet, is next to go in what’s become a pronounced leadership shake-up.
What’s befallen Shulkin is a favorite tactic of Trump’s, who followed a similar approach with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and, to a lesser degree, national security adviser H.R. McMaster. The president emasculates those who fall from favor, humiliating them through media leaks and in disparaging comments to friends. The mixed signals often leave even senior White House officials guessing who will be fired and when.
“Emasculate” isn’t the right word since Trump certainly doesn’t treat women any better. Anyway the point is that he does all these firings as sadistically as he can.
[Shulkin’s] predicament is no doubt familiar to others once in the president’s inner circle.
During the last few weeks of Reince Priebus’s tenure as White House chief of staff, for example, he was so widely seen as weakened that some aides said they began skipping the meetings he called. Trump, meanwhile, told him he was doing a good job, even as other aides bet on how much longer he could survive. Trump eventually announced his replacement on Twitter minutes after Priebus walked off Air Force One onto a rainy tarmac.
In the case of Tillerson, foreign diplomats and prime ministers complained to U.S. lawmakers that they did not believe the secretary of state was speaking for the administration in the final six months of his tenure because Trump had so undercut him.
McMaster used to joke to other officials in the West Wing that any day could be his last and aides said his tenuous status kept him from doing his job.
Trump’s aides frequently ask him for the status of certain Cabinet officials so they will not say anything inaccurate publicly. Not checking frequently can leave an aide “looking dumb” with yesterday’s information, according to one former senior White House official. For instance, Trump told aides for several weeks that he was planning to oust McMaster. After a story said that, he told aides to deny it — and then moved to replace him less than a week later.
He’s such a prankster.
Shulkin, say people close to him, is under no illusions that he still has the president’s confidence. He has long feared that Trump will mete out the same fate on Twitter as some of his former colleagues have.
To that end, the secretary is laying low. He is limiting his travel to destinations close to Washington, canceling plans to speak next week at an annual ski competition for paralyzed veterans in Aspen, Colo. Shulkin is concerned, allies say, about the optics following an inspector general report that criticized a trip he led to Europe last summer.
Shulkin has told those he trusts that he wants to avoid what happened to former FBI director James B. Comey, who learned of his firing last May from a television report while meeting with agents in Los Angeles. Trump wanted to fire Tillerson via tweet while he was traveling in Africa to maximize the humiliation, advisers say, but Chief of Staff John F. Kelly convinced him otherwise.
Let me repeat that.
Trump wanted to fire Tillerson via tweet while he was traveling in Africa to maximize the humiliation, advisers say, but Chief of Staff John F. Kelly convinced him otherwise.
Yeah.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1849964361688683/?type=3&theater
I wonder how much of it is playing to people’s just-world-hypothesis thinking: humiliating people and otherwise punishing them will make an audience reduce cognitive dissonance by thinking these people deserve this. When Trump pulls the trigger, that audience – typically, his followers – will figure it’s a good thing, that the victim had it coming, and he’s “draining the swamp” – even when they are his own appointees. (I’m not denying sheer spite on his part, but he’s got a low cunning when it comes to manipulating a certain segment of uncritical thinkers and spite may not be the only thing at work.)
There’s also how it keeps the spotlight on him. He’s always either firing someone, teasing about firing someone, or fueling speculation about firing someone. So the White House is reduced to a compelling reality show (“Survivor: 1600 Pennsylvania”) and that sops up vast quantities of public attention, while his stooges destroy every worthwhile government function they can under cover of that media blitz. He’s employing the feeding of his personal narcissism to double as cover for his political nihilism.
Shaking with anger.
Jeff – that’s an excellent point about reducing cognitive dissonance.
Sheer spite and cog diss can be closely entangled, I think. “I’m awesome & I don’t like this guy so this guy must be awful & deserving of whatever I do to him” sort of thing.
Re #4 – Yeah. The first and oldest victim of Trump’s manipulation is himself – wealth, power, and exposure have just meant he’s been allowed to extend that to the world. The same can go for his dishonesty – it’s plausible that, whenever he says whatever ridiculous thing he’s just made up, he does believe it as sincerely as he can believe anything. He simply hasn’t a use for any cognitive system that yokes belief to evidence. He hasn’t needed one on account of power, and he hasn’t wanted one on account of irresponsibility.
For all the prating about “reason”, Sam Harris has been able to manage a somewhat milder, less outrageous version of the same. It’s one of the “charming” problems of well-off and/or more-credentialed-than-educated academic white male privilege.
“…these people deserve this. When Trump pulls the trigger, that audience – typically, his followers – will figure it’s a good thing, that the victim had it coming, and he’s “draining the swamp” – even when they are his own appointees. ”
Part of me feels some sympathy for the humiliation aspect, which is uncalled for, but Trump appointees must have known Trump would be a nightmare to work for/with before they took their jobs, so what were they expecting?
Trump’s aides frequently ask him for the status of certain Cabinet officials
This reminded me of the way Nanny Ogg behaves in the Diskworld books. She has pictures of her extended family placed in order of their current status, based partly on entirely arbitrary decisions, with the most dreaded position being the cat’s litter tray.
Its all a ‘reality’ show for him. The smug firing comes after the ad-break, with at least two dead-end ‘teaser’ segments.
Getting a TeeVee gig is clearly his peak achievement. The White House is just an attempt to keep in play.
YNnB, I agree with you about limited sympathy for Trump appointees, but Shulkin was originally an Obama appointee who probably just wanted to carry on doing his job. I would have some sympathy for the Trump appointees if they had determined to do their jobs properly despite Trump, but that isn’t the sort of person he’d hire in the first place anyway. They knew the score, and their only goals were to grab as much as they could in the time they had.
My sympathy lies with those purged for not being Trump’s people, and with the American people having to suffer through this shitstorm of an administration indulging itself in an orgy of self-interest.
AoS:
Agreed. It will tack decades (if ever) to repair the results of Trump’s smash and grab “politics.”