Trump has yet to collaborate with the General Services Administration, which is tasked with the complex work of handing over control of hundreds of agencies, because he has not turned in required pledges to follow ethics rules. His transition teams have yet to set foot inside a single federal office.
In calls with foreign heads of state, Trump has cut out the State Department, its secure lines and its official interpreters.
As his team considers hundreds of potential appointees for key jobs, he’s so far declined to let the Federal Bureau of Investigation check for potential red flags and security threats to guard against espionage — instead relying on private campaign lawyers for some appointees and doing no vetting at all for others. Trump’s transition team is considering moving on his first day in office to give those appointees blanket security clearances, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations.
At the root of this unprecedented approach, say those close to Trump’s transition, is an abiding distrust and resentment of federal agencies that the president-elect blames for blocking his agenda in his first term, leaking his plans to the press, and later sharing his documents with investigators and bringing criminal charges against him.
...
Many of the president-elect’s moves to skirt official transition policies are within the law, experts said — or at least are subject to laws that are not regularly enforced.
But his transition alarms some officials who say the president-elect is weakening transparency, eroding checks and balances, and risking national security.
“The Trump team is attempting to convert the government into an instrument of his private agenda,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Instead, Stier said, “We’re seeing a push to revert to the spoils system,” a reference to the 19th-century practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs without vetting and often not based on merit.
...
Presidential transitions are formally led by the GSA, which typically provides furnished office space and computer support to both nominees for pre-election planning.
But Trump harbors deep distrust for the agency, several allies said, which shared thousands of emails from his 2016 transition team with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III during his probe into allegations of Russian election interference. Trump claimed the correspondence was collected unlawfully and belonged to the transition team.
Yeah he's going to do what he's been doing since 2016, no shit. That's why reasonable people wanted him no where near any position of power. Here was an entertaining article today:...
Yeah he's going to do what he's been doing since 2016, no shit. That's why reasonable people wanted him no where near any position of power.
Summary is that the typical suspects are acting surprised by all the chaos and nonsense caused by Trump. As if they hadn't seen this same thing almost daily since 2016.
It's kind of a joke now, but there are things that can be done instead of feigning outrage. Republican Senators, if you are shocked and outraged, Impeach and convict his criminal ass. You can do it in January of February if you want, you don't have to wait months and act surprised as he continues to ignore convention and break laws.
Most entertaining thing from the Atlantic article is that the health care industry is going to get fucked by Trump too. Donors and supporters getting mauled by the face eating leopards will be my only source of political happiness for the next few years.
On K Street, Politico reports, health-care-industry lobbyists can’t believe that Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. They were “expecting a more conventional pick,” even though Trump emphasized Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda late in the campaign, and even though Kennedy said that Trump had promised him control of HHS. To be sure, Kennedy is a shocking and disturbing pick, as Benjamin Mazer and my colleague Yasmin Tayag have recently written for The Atlantic, but his nomination should not come as a surprise—especially for people whose entire business proposition is being highly paid to advise clients on how Washington actually works. (The influence peddlers reportedly hope that senators will block Kennedy. The fact that they’re still waiting for someone else to solve their problems is further evidence of how little they’ve learned, years into the Trump era.)
Whoever that quote is sourced from better be lying, because the alternative is just too stupid to be true.
They were “expecting a more conventional pick,” even though Trump emphasized Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda late in the campaign, and even though Kennedy said that Trump had promised him control of HHS.
Whoever that quote is sourced from better be lying, because the alternative is just too stupid to be true.
Many industries do not understand their underlying mechanics and instead have tons of people just parroting/repeating what they were taught or what worked before. Trump 1 already kicked a lot of...
Many industries do not understand their underlying mechanics and instead have tons of people just parroting/repeating what they were taught or what worked before.
Trump 1 already kicked a lot of people in the teeth and round 2 is probably going to kick even more.
He’s got very little to lose and is even older. It’s going to be full steam ahead on team sycophant, and sadly the smart play is for lobbyists to start realizing that they aren’t going to get the picks they want, but that none of the ones he does pick have any morals or guides and can be easily influenced
It’s easy to see how it will do a lot of damage to the US government. (To start with, by disclosing US secrets. This administration is going to leak like a sieve.) But it’s not all that clear that...
It’s easy to see how it will do a lot of damage to the US government. (To start with, by disclosing US secrets. This administration is going to leak like a sieve.) But it’s not all that clear that Trump will be effective at getting done what he wants to do. If he can’t work with most of the government and brings in a bunch of amateurs, how does anything get done?
Still to be seen: does the Senate let him appoint who he wants? What does the military actually do when given illegal orders?
One possibility: a circus in the White House combined with government shutdown.
From the article:
...
...
Yeah he's going to do what he's been doing since 2016, no shit. That's why reasonable people wanted him no where near any position of power.
Here was an entertaining article today:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/washington-shocked-trump-nominations/680703/
Summary is that the typical suspects are acting surprised by all the chaos and nonsense caused by Trump. As if they hadn't seen this same thing almost daily since 2016.
It's kind of a joke now, but there are things that can be done instead of feigning outrage. Republican Senators, if you are shocked and outraged, Impeach and convict his criminal ass. You can do it in January of February if you want, you don't have to wait months and act surprised as he continues to ignore convention and break laws.
Most entertaining thing from the Atlantic article is that the health care industry is going to get fucked by Trump too. Donors and supporters getting mauled by the face eating leopards will be my only source of political happiness for the next few years.
Whoever that quote is sourced from better be lying, because the alternative is just too stupid to be true.
Many industries do not understand their underlying mechanics and instead have tons of people just parroting/repeating what they were taught or what worked before.
Trump 1 already kicked a lot of people in the teeth and round 2 is probably going to kick even more.
He’s got very little to lose and is even older. It’s going to be full steam ahead on team sycophant, and sadly the smart play is for lobbyists to start realizing that they aren’t going to get the picks they want, but that none of the ones he does pick have any morals or guides and can be easily influenced
Whelp. Hope somebody has an ace up their sleeve. Cause this makes the whole "Dr.Oz" thing look pretty damn mild by comparison.
It’s easy to see how it will do a lot of damage to the US government. (To start with, by disclosing US secrets. This administration is going to leak like a sieve.) But it’s not all that clear that Trump will be effective at getting done what he wants to do. If he can’t work with most of the government and brings in a bunch of amateurs, how does anything get done?
Still to be seen: does the Senate let him appoint who he wants? What does the military actually do when given illegal orders?
One possibility: a circus in the White House combined with government shutdown.