(Photo: History.com)
To say that President Trump’s first month in office has been chaotic is the understatement of the millennium. The new administration has, from the outset, been hindered by rampant infighting among West Wing staffers, legal and political blowback for a multitude of hastily-enacted and overreaching executive orders, and a communication team whose relationship with the words “truth” and “fact” is… interesting, to say the least.
And all of this is compounded by a complete lack of consistency on foreign policy, or, actually, any policy at all. Take, for example, the roll-out of the travel moratorium: the lack of clear communication from the White House on what the order actually entailed lead many to incorrectly characterize the edict as a “Muslim ban,” and created immense confusion within the federal agencies responsible for enacting it before it was struck down in court.
As far as I can tell, Mr. Trump is shooting from the hip in the worst possible way. It is one thing to be flexible and adaptive, such as when Obama adopted a more hawkish stance on terrorism once in office. It is another thing entirely to not only ignore, but decline consultation altogether with the meager cabinet Mr. Trump has managed to assemble.
Perhaps the biggest problem, however, is the snail’s pace at which the process of nomination and confirmation for top executive branch posts has been moving for the past 30 days. The delay can be partially attributed to the strong opposition from Senate Democrats towards certain controversial nominations, such as Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education or Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, both of whom were confirmed after weeks of debate. However, the lion’s share of blame belongs to the Trump administration, which has been dragging its feet on announcing nominations. While Mr. Trump has managed to put forward nominees for the full set of cabinet-level positions, he has only announced nominations for 13 of the 529 critical non-cabinet posts which require Senate confirmation and the Washington Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service claim are necessary for the executive branch and bureaucracy to function optimally. None of them have been confirmed yet, leaving the 14 cabinet members who have been successfully confirmed without deputies to handle the day to day operations of their departments, hindering their ability to focus on formulating policy.
According to the New York Times, this largely stems from the president’s position as an outsider to the Republican establishment – at whom he continuously thumbed his nose during the campaign, even after securing the party’s nomination. On the one hand, Mr. Trump seems to insist on total loyalty from his appointees, and the White House has repeatedly vetoed suggestions for otherwise qualified candidates. The Trump administration has largely kept to wealthy businesspeople that, like Mr. Trump himself, are Washington outsiders. By the same token, many members of the establishment find themselves alienated by what they perceive to be erratic behavior and an unorthodox, controversial approach to governance. In particular, I suspect that the president will have difficulty finding a new national security advisor to replace Michael T. Flynn, whose sudden resignation last Monday has caused turmoil at all levels of the National Security Council.
Time is running out for the Trump administration if they want to be able to build the momentum needed to implement the president’s vision for the next four years. They cannot afford to keep spinning wheels as they have been for another few months. If the president’s approval ratings continue their gradual, downward trend, (and they will so long as the dysfunction and chaos at the White House continue) the Trump administration could be faced with an uncooperative GOP in Congress, trying to distance itself from the presidency in an effort to protect the party’s majorities in the mid-term elections.
To say that President Trump’s first month in office has been chaotic is the understatement of the millennium. The new administration has, from the outset, been hindered by rampant infighting among West Wing staffers, legal and political blowback for a multitude of hastily-enacted and overreaching executive orders, and a communication team whose relationship with the words “truth” and “fact” is… interesting, to say the least.
And all of this is compounded by a complete lack of consistency on foreign policy, or, actually, any policy at all. Take, for example, the roll-out of the travel moratorium: the lack of clear communication from the White House on what the order actually entailed lead many to incorrectly characterize the edict as a “Muslim ban,” and created immense confusion within the federal agencies responsible for enacting it before it was struck down in court.
As far as I can tell, Mr. Trump is shooting from the hip in the worst possible way. It is one thing to be flexible and adaptive, such as when Obama adopted a more hawkish stance on terrorism once in office. It is another thing entirely to not only ignore, but decline consultation altogether with the meager cabinet Mr. Trump has managed to assemble.
Perhaps the biggest problem, however, is the snail’s pace at which the process of nomination and confirmation for top executive branch posts has been moving for the past 30 days. The delay can be partially attributed to the strong opposition from Senate Democrats towards certain controversial nominations, such as Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education or Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, both of whom were confirmed after weeks of debate. However, the lion’s share of blame belongs to the Trump administration, which has been dragging its feet on announcing nominations. While Mr. Trump has managed to put forward nominees for the full set of cabinet-level positions, he has only announced nominations for 13 of the 529 critical non-cabinet posts which require Senate confirmation and the Washington Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service claim are necessary for the executive branch and bureaucracy to function optimally. None of them have been confirmed yet, leaving the 14 cabinet members who have been successfully confirmed without deputies to handle the day to day operations of their departments, hindering their ability to focus on formulating policy.
According to the New York Times, this largely stems from the president’s position as an outsider to the Republican establishment – at whom he continuously thumbed his nose during the campaign, even after securing the party’s nomination. On the one hand, Mr. Trump seems to insist on total loyalty from his appointees, and the White House has repeatedly vetoed suggestions for otherwise qualified candidates. The Trump administration has largely kept to wealthy businesspeople that, like Mr. Trump himself, are Washington outsiders. By the same token, many members of the establishment find themselves alienated by what they perceive to be erratic behavior and an unorthodox, controversial approach to governance. In particular, I suspect that the president will have difficulty finding a new national security advisor to replace Michael T. Flynn, whose sudden resignation last Monday has caused turmoil at all levels of the National Security Council.
Time is running out for the Trump administration if they want to be able to build the momentum needed to implement the president’s vision for the next four years. They cannot afford to keep spinning wheels as they have been for another few months. If the president’s approval ratings continue their gradual, downward trend, (and they will so long as the dysfunction and chaos at the White House continue) the Trump administration could be faced with an uncooperative GOP in Congress, trying to distance itself from the presidency in an effort to protect the party’s majorities in the mid-term elections.
Ford Mulligan Staff Reporter