28 out of 690
Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg:
Politico’s Michael Crowley has a nice piece explaining the missing National Security Council staffers, and the dangers that could cause if there’s an early crisis. Hundreds of briefing papers have been created by Obama’s NSC and sent to Team Trump, but the New York Times reports that no one knows if they’ve been reviewed.
Yet the NSC is ahead of the curve for this administration. Look at the big four departments. There’s no Trump appointee for any of the top State Department jobs below secretary nominee Rex Tillerson. No Trump appointee for any of the top Department of Defense jobs below retired general James Mattis. Treasury? Same story. Justice? It is one of two departments (along with, bizarrely, Commerce) where Trump has selected a deputy secretary. But no solicitor general, no one at civil rights, no one in the civil division, no one for the national security division.
And the same is true in department after department. Not to mention agencies without anyone at all nominated by the president-elect.
Overall, out of 690 positions requiring Senate confirmation tracked by the Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service, Trump has come up with only 28 people so far.
That’s alarming. It’s alarming if it’s incompetence and indifference, and it’s alarming if it’s all part of the cunning plan to destroy the state.
If I had to guess, however, I’d say that the failure to get his administration up and running on time isn’t a deliberate choice by Trump; he just has no idea what he’s doing, and hasn’t surrounded himself with people well-equipped to translate his impulses and his campaign commitments into a full-fledged government. This isn’t exactly a surprise. Recall that the Trump Organization has never had a large bureaucracy and that his campaign didn’t staff up the way campaigns normally do, so he doesn’t really have any relevant management experience. And, of course, he’s never demonstrated any significant knowledge in how the government actually works. The results are likely to be damaging to his presidency, and to the nation.
His presidency should be damaged. The nation? I’d rather not.
I hope everyone is pleased that they elected an outsider with no experience. I’d like to think this would be a teaching moment for the nation, but I begin to believe that our collective society is incapable of learning – at least where their hatreds come together and drive their decisions.
…so running his nation much as he runs his businesses, then.
BK-US
God, he’s good at this stuff. His natural ability just shines.
He’d better get a second telephone line for his desk and stock up on pads, pens and couriers
Maybe he should just call the casting office. They could surely send over some suitable people who look the part to fill the roles, right?
He’s going to run things on pure, natural talent and the force of his character. After all, he knows things.
You are so fucked.
Maybe the rest of the world too.
It’s a bad that humans haven’t figured out or implemented ways of doing things that are proof against the distorting and disruptive influence of dangerous individuals (and their enablers/hangers-on) who obtain access to powerful positions. Learning a lesson only really works when you have an opportunity to use the knowledge gained in subsequent eventualities. Bit late now, as there may not be a next time.
If most of the necessary jobs in the administration are vacant, surely it follows that there is nobody capable of even formulating a proposal for Congress to discuss? Nobody capable of compiling the necessary documentation for an executive order? Any legislation they do manage to botch together will likely be so self-contradictory and flawed that it cannot have any significant effect.
This may not be entirely a bad thing.
Maybe the US government is so big and Trump’s attention span is so small that large swathes of it will escape his detection entirely. There are probably scores of offices he’s never heard of the functions of which he wouldn’t have a clue. If the civil servants in those branches can keep their heads down and keep things functioning, then maybe those departments will survive or be preserved. Wishful thinking, I know. When has total ignorance ever stopped Trump from making pronouncements or claiming competence?