Trump White House Staff 2.0

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Spicer gone.

Anthony Scaramucci in as White House Communications Director.

Reince Priebus gone.

Jon Kelly in as new Chief of Staff.

What do I think?  What everybody else thinks:

(1)  You need people with experience in their job. Scaramucci is a Wall Street bulldog, and has no experience at communications. This was made abundantly clear by giving a profanity-laced screed to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker without specifying that he wanted it off-the-record.  That alone should have disqualified him, but Trump reportedly loved it (because Scaramucci swore, I guess). Likewise, Jon Kelly is ex-military, and running a military unit is not like running a civilian one. He can bark orders all he wants; this is not the military. It won’t stop leaks. Also, you need people who can work with Congress. Priebus had no strong congressional pull; Kelly has even less.

(2) The problem starts and ends with Trump.

In addition, it is clear that Ivanka’s role as adviser is virtually zero now, and Jared has little pull it seems as well. They are New York progressives — young adults of a different era, and despite their loyalty to Daddy Trump, they just don’t share his politics.  And they cannot move him.

And with Trump STILL trying to get rid of Sessions, we see a strange thing: Trump is slowing throwing everyone who helped him win under a bus.

Trump is weak and a loser.  Peggy Noonan took him to task by saying as much, insinuating that he was no more than a whiny sissy boy:

The president’s primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It’s not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity.

He’s not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he’s whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He’s a drama queen.

And that was just the opening paragraphs.

Trump doesn’t think of himself as a loser, despite having no major legislation passed, and seeing Obamacare repeal and replace go down in flames in dramatic fashion last week.  In fact, he STILL thinks it can be revived (he might be right about that, but most politicians would have moved on).

What Trump wants to do is keep his base – which hovers at around 30% — angry. So be prepared for scorched-earth politics from the Oval Office, including more savage verbal attacks on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, more baseless charges of voter fraud in the 2016 election, more specific threats to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, and further escalation of the culture wars.

Trump wants his base to become increasingly angry and politically mobilized so they’ll continue to exert an outsized influence on the Republican Party

Trump is already demanding that Mitch McConnell and senate Republicans obliterate the filibuster, thereby allowing anything to be passed with a bare majority.

On Saturday he tweeted “Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW!” adding the filibuster “allows 8 Dems to control country,” and “Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don’t go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time.”

It’s the same strategy as always. Overstate the wins, and de-legitimize the losses.

Clearly, Scaramucci is a Trump sycophant and will do Trump’s bidding. Kelly, on the other hand, is more of an unknown and perhaps can tame Trump (Trump has conferred with him privately in the past, and apparently trusts him), but that remains to be seen. I suspect Kelly, like Reince, will be relegated to damage control, a full time White House job these days.

UPDATE…. a few hours later:

Well, that was fast. I guess Kelly is making his presence known….

NYT confirms this was Kelly’s doing:

The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly’s request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.

It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci will remain employed at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.