Before becoming president, Donald Trump had a very popular television program whose main appeal was the popular phrase “You’re Fired!”
As president, Trump set an amazing record setting pace of firing top level officials or having them leave just before being fired.
Clearly, Trump knows how to fire. He also knows how to provoke officials to resign. Let’s recap.
Please consider Casualties of the Trump Administration So Far
- Reince Priebus, the former White House chief-of-staff, resigned just six months into his tenure after a public feud with Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director.
- Sean Spicer, the embattled White House press secretary, resigned on Friday after telling Trump he vehemently disagreed with the selection of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.
- Michael Dubke, the former White House communications director, resigned in May. Dubke was replaced by Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of a hedge fund and a top Trump donor.
- Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, resigned earlier this month after clashing with the White House over Trump’s complicated financial holdings. Shaub called Trump’s administration a “laughingstock,” following his resignation, and advocated for strengthening the US’s ethical and financial disclosure rules, per The New York Times.
- Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in May.
- Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned in February after serving in the position for less than a month. Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials about the contents of his phone conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the US. Flynn reportedly discussed the Obama administration’s sanctions against Russia with Kislyak prior to Trump assuming office.
- Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting attorney general and an appointee of former President Barack Obama, just ten days after assuming office. Yates had refused to uphold the Trump administration’s controversial travel ban in January.
- Trump fired Preet Bharara, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan and ‘Sheriff’ of Wall Street, in March after Bharara refused to submit a resignation letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
- Katie Walsh, the former deputy chief of staff and close ally to chief of staff Reince Priebus left the White House just nine weeks into the job to run America First, a pro-Trump group outside of the government.
What Does This Prove?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
You cannot tell how well someone will do in a new paradigm job like the Trump White House.
Trump at least removes the traitors, Iagos, incompetents, and the ineffective. Compare the rest going back to Reagan. Carter even axed most of his cabinent during the “malaise”.
Trump will get better at hiring for DC as he learns to recognize the Swamp Creatures.
precisely – it’s all
about draining the swamp and deep state
Touche and touche!
If you want to drain a swamp, you’ve got to cut the dead wood.
small problem: for the most part, good, productive people dont like to work in swamps. And even if they did, nothing good comes of it.
Preibus is nothing but trouble. Trump is learning as he goes and is figuring out what people he needs and what people he hired which don’t provide him with the support he needs. Trump will fire them all to stop the leaks but I think with preibus leaving they will dry up.
They won’t be missed.
We are about to have a war, and not a little, short one (like Granada).
Having a White House Chief of Staff who could just as easily occupy the position of Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff is the mother of all ‘tells.’
Gentlemen (and ladies), ready yourselves for the big termination …
… of Kim Jong Un.
It’s Grenada with an “e”. Granada is a city in Spain’s Andalusia region.
We are given an opportunity in life
{{some get more than one}}
If you don’t give it your very best
You get fired and have no one to blame but yourself
Plus Trump always gives them a chance to redeem themselves, but…….
“Trump has a proven ability to fire people. Perhaps he would not need that talent so much if he learned how to hire.”
Yup! But then what can expect from Trump, who can change his views on anything every minute of the day. Sad that anti-establishment’s best is Trump. What can one say if this is all America can offer as an alternative to establishment.
Scaramucvi gets hired and the first order of business is to delete all the negative stuff he put out about Trump in the past. At that point, the guys who got fired begin putting out their own negative stuff.
You’re left with hiring family only and it becomes a very small world.
Trump wasn’t the anti-establishment’s best by a long shot. He’s the best the Republican party had to offer.
The Republican Party did not want Trump
Let’s make it clear…
The American People wanted Trump
“…of the people, by the people, and for the people…”
When draining the swamp, would you hire swamp creatures to accomplish the job? The swamp is their home so I’d guess that half his time in office will be much of the same.
I’m still wondering if Trump has a plan and it involves being as disruptive as possible. He’s setting a gold standard on that. There’s little doubt the status quo in Washington was already dysfunctional so as a new broom, he’s getting quite a bit of support.
Single handedly he has levered the Democrats into a bin. The were teetering already, so the merest touch was all that was needed.
For me the acid test will be the future of the health policy, The Republicans are self destructing over their stand, and even with Trump’s goading they can’t defend their position.
Bernie says he will put up a bid for a single payer scheme. Trump can bring it to pass, because all the other options considered have been shot through with holes. If Trump achieves that his presidency will be seen favourably into the future. We’ll just have to wait and dee!
Trump’s plan is to monetise the WH like never before and enrich his family. That’s it, beginning, middle and end.
He is the ‘elite’ and his followers are useful idiots. One thing for certain, when he’s gone little with have materially changed for them, assuming they survive his wars.
I have mixed feelings about Scaramanger – oh wait that was the Bond villain – I meant Scaramucci.
Good riddance to Priebus — a left over from the “old” RNC that was so entrenched that they got a real estate tycoon with weird hair into office. If the Democrats weren’t so corrupt, and the Reps so OCD on starting wars — the country wouldn’t have a (relative) outsider as President.
Scaramucci likely won’t be as timid about going after the corruption that **IS** Washington DC. Trump was hired to drain the swamp, not appease and placate them.
If the losers in Congress (who exempted themselves from Obamacare because it SUCKS) won’t repeal it, then I say bring on anyone and everyone who will make Congress’ life difficult. We have lost any and all pretense of a government that represents taxpayers who foot the bill for all this “free sh!t” Congress hands out.
I don’t think Scaramucci will be a pleasant guy for Congress to work with, but they deserve far worse.
As for the propoganda team that masquerades as the media? F them. Have some college kid do the daily press briefings from now on — have him/her like talk about like stuff that like totally has like nothing to do with like anything they can like report on their so-called media outlets. Waste the media’s time like they waste everyone else’s. Click bait that losers.
It was long overdue for someone ANYBODY to call for a special prosecutor over Hillary’s many crimes (including the Awan brothers, former AG Lynch, the murder of Seth Rich, Comey, etc etc). A year’s worth of endless whining about Russia, with nothing to show for it — while actual crimes get white washed? Does the FBI / Dept of Justice expect to be taken seriously?
As for Trump… good for him that he is fighting back against the swamp crooks (assume that is the point of Scaramucci). But if any republican wants to get re-elected (Trump included) they had better repeal Obamacare. No excuses.
Like totally but I think the word “like” has been replaced with “so”.
Huge has been replaced by bigly.
” A year’s worth of endless whining about Russia, with nothing to show for it — while actual crimes get white washed? Does the FBI / Dept of Justice expect to be taken seriously?”
Apparently not. There has been no move to criminally prosecute bankers for crimes committed during the housing bubble.
There are always shakedowns in every administration. Since Trump has never held elective office it should’ve been widely expected that he would shake the rotted fruit from the tree until he found a comfortable mix. This is particularly true since many who claimed to be his allies turned out to be traitors. What do you expect the man to do? Keep people on his staff who are leaking proprietary information to the media?
Let’s think logically and be reasonable.
“Let’s think logically and be reasonable.”
Tell me again, why was Bharara fired?
I’m sure Wall Street is thrilled that their swamp isn’t getting drained.
an act that proved Trump is a different swamp creature.
if so, the idea that Trump is a Molotov cocktail thrown into the heart of DC may be accurate.
The President now has three military generals in key cabinet positions. In many other countries, top brass replacing cabinet officials would be called a coup d’etat. Here, we just say that Trump has put generals in key positions. Unless the tables have turned, and in actuality the generals now own Trump as their figurehead. If he did also acquiesce to the gradual insinuation of military influence, it could be hard to be sure, one way or the other.
The entire administration will eventually military and family. Trumps supporters will cheer.
Oh for God’s sake, quit with the military is evil shit would you please? Retired generals have ZERO authority in military command structure; ZERO. Try enlisting or getting a commission to find out before you make up the idiotic spy novel plots about former American military officers.It is entirely possible that they have very real world experience leading good people and are themselves NOT interested in a coup d’etat. Most do something that means more to them than becoming your master. They swear an oath to the Constitution, not Donald Trump, not America, and not to some goofy conspiracy theory to take over the country. The oath actually means something. And try finding something out about the person of John Kelly instead making a fidiot (yes, FIDIOT with and F) out of yourself. We veterans are really getting tired of moronic statements by ignorant keyboardists.
Thanks for instilling some reality into the conversation.
As a vet, I concur with your assessment.
I did not say the military was evil. Civilian control of the military was acquiesced, when a general was made defense secretary. The issue is valid, as well as the question of the military exerting undue influence over the civilian executive. I think we, as a nation, have gotten really lax about what is tolerated, as a matter of federal policy, in these areas that extend globally as well. We also appear lax in tolerating offensive innuendos and foul language in common discourse these days, which makes rational discussion unpleasant.
Those RETIRED generals ARE civilians. Your issue is baseless and nonsensical and you have ZERO evidence of it ever happening where a coup d’etat has happened in this country with this military. Irrational idiocy that conjures up ridiculous ideas based on Hollywood movies does require offensive innuendos sometimes to wake up morons. Get a clue about tolerance and learn something about the organization that provides you the freedom to be an idiot.
Political organizations, parties, and governments are never know for their flexibility of mind or temperament for change. They are the ultimate expression of the Peter Principle, individuals rise to their top level of incompetence and stay there. Trump is no dummy. If an individual has promise but either is placed in a position where their competence is severely challenged or their willingness to build their own fiefdoms are paramount, he has enough sense to fire them. But personal and political loyalty to the “cause” is the political currency one pays.
But government is not a business and we may fault Trump for missing that point. Still, America could have done a lot worse with Hillary And of the other republican candidates I’m not sure.any of them would have been up to the challenges of change needed in this country.
Ha ha ha. You guys continue to bury your heads in the darkness of Trump’s arse while making apologies for his total failure to accomplish much of anything in 6 months.
Time to wake-up and smell the coffee! Trump, the man of multiple bankruptcies, multiple wives and thousands of law suits is a loser. Always has been, always will be. Those who voted for him got snookered.
Those who voted for him got seduced, simple messages for simple folks, useful idiots.
‘Vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true’
It’s amusing how wrong you are. The ongoing list of Trump’s accomplishments and fulfilled campaign promises so far:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/63nxsn/update_i_was_tired_of_liberals_saying_trump_hasnt/
Note: if you wish to convince people of your point of view, it helps to not be totally ignorant. Just sayin’.
Don’t bury them with the facts, Meister. Leave them a little breathing room. lol.
The shocking reason(s) people aren’t aware of Trump’s long list of accomplishments in a short 6 month period is twofold: (1) The fake news media never reports them and/or (2) They’re so blinded by their own political partisanship and biases that they can’t see past their own noses.
Danke schoen for educating the ignorant.
“Those who voted for him got snookered.”
Still waiting to be snookered. Trump isn’t Hillary. Trump isn’t JEB.
It’s always easy to let your imagination wander thinking on what might have been. At least with Clinton or Bush in the WH, we wouldn’t have the complete insanity and dysfunction that exists now!
If Hillary had won, we most likely would be involved in a war with Russia right now.
Trump is being pushed into war with Russia, Hillary would have been doing the pushing herself.
She is neocon to the core.
Watch the video of her cackling over Gaddafi dying after he had a bayonet shoved up his ass to see the true Hillary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
That ALONE was sufficient reason to vote against her.
It’s rumored that Putin saw the video of Gadaffi being brutalized to death and decided to intervene in Syria to prevent the US from doing the same thing again. That made a civil war into a major international nuclear flash point. Nice ‘diplomacy’, bitch.
A vote against Hillary does not imply a 100% endorsement of Trump.
Quite a few people voted for her to escape nuclear annihilation, which is a perfectly rational decision to make.
As I said, it can be fun to let YOUR imagination run loose, especially after a few drinks or whatever .
Minor correction: “Quite a few people voted for her *opponent*”.
Hillary is arrogant and inflexible. That’s what cost her the election. She was a disaster as Secretary of State and would have been a catastrophic President.
BTW, I’m a teetotaler, dude.
Government jobs were supposed to be secure lifetime appointments, with big pensions like in Illinois. These political jobs are mostly $100k-$300k per year range, with an equivalent pension for life if you can last 5-20 years. Small wonder people hate losing White House and other top government jobs, but they are worth the gamble, and the experience is certainly valuable and looks good on resumes. Congress creates lots of jobs/positions as political rewards to house political zealots between elections, and Trump is letting these positions go unfilled instead of adding temporary deadweight to USA.gov. I believe these jobs used to be known as the campaign “spoils” or “patronage” awarded victors.
The real problem is Trump cannot do like Erdogan, and do a wholesale draining of Swamp bureaucracies that sap vitality and slow the economy. But of course Trump has to first get a staff up and running to his liking, and that takes time and trial-and-error with any new organizational setup. Some chaos is to be expected, and should be welcomed; certainly better than the stagnation and stultification typical of bureaucracies. Makes me think of Kurosawa’s movie Ikiru (To Live), about a Tokyo bureaucrat who spends his whole life thwarting people trying to do things until he gets a diagnosis of terminal cancer and then transforms himself into a Japanese version of Trump getting things done for people instead.
Perhaps he should also go directly to the people regarding this house and senate bill past in a way that he can’t veto it. That’s kind of a shame because these assholes are going to get us into a very bad war. Over a bs charge of Russia tampering with our elections. We have to convince him to take his fight with congress and senate direct to the people and direct to both houses asking them to hold off more sanctions until the investigations I have listed a proven beyond a doubt. This is absolute Madness to pick a fight with the Russians over a lie by the single most corrupt administration ever of our country. We must convince him to stop the additional sanctions. And if we don’t then we must put our head between our legs, because this is how WW II started.
It’s time to be patriots and save our President before the Neo Cons and Neo Crats destroy us. We need this president to get us his $1. Billion dollar infrastructure program yet this year. We need taxes cut to 12% across the board, no deductions for anyone. eliminate the mortagage deduction, eliminate demanding employers pay health insurance. No deductions for anyone. That’s how things get sloppy. And bottom line I’ll bet that alone will bring insurance premiums down. Let them go across state lines and you will see even more savings. Make everyone pay their fair share no write offs. Except for those eRning less than $50000 a year combined, $25000 single and no taxes if you receive Social security retirement funding from government Those earning less than $50000 no taxes .
I think he’s going to let the sanctions bill stand and sign it. I also think he is going to basically ignore it once it’s signed, drag his feet, instruct various agencies in ways to subvert it, and go on with *actual* business as usual.
Trump doesn’t fire the people that get results. Is there a problem here?
“I expected some broken dishes, some firings, some chaos, and some rookie mistakes. We got all of that. But I also expect a systems-thinker to tame the chaos over time as he learns on the job. For example, the leaks will stop as soon as Trump fires the right people. He’ll figure out which meetings he can skip. He’ll know who to trust. He’ll learn where all the buttons and levers are. It’s a process.”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157317171676/how-to-evaluate-a-president
In all fairness, does that wild campaign last year end with victory in November without Priebus? I say no way.
He “got results” with Reince Priebus, but once again, we see a political candidate acting one way and as an elected official act another.
Priebus tried everything he could think of to prevent Trump from getting the Rep nomination; he only backed Trump *AFTER* it was clear Trump had the nomination.
Priebus is part of the old guard RNC, the ones that dropped the ball over and over again. He is a friend of the entrenched politicians in Washington. He put party over country and principle… as though the RNC was viable without the support of regular voters. In short, a fool.
Keep your friends close and **enemies** closer — that is the only reason I can think of why Trump allowed Priebus into the White House in the first place.
If Trump wants to drain the swamp, then entrenched party apparatchiks like Priebus have to go sooner or later. I was surprised it wasn’t sooner.
Hopefully Trump will fire a lot more bureaucrats. One can’t say the government is functioning for the 99.99% outside of the beltway, so the 99.99% doesn’t care if the status quo breaks. Its already broken.
“Priebus tried everything he could think of to prevent Trump from getting the Rep nomination; he only backed Trump *AFTER* it was clear Trump had the nomination.”
Yes, as stated earlier, he got results. Where does it say he has to back the one leading in the polls? That’s what the Democrats did with Hillary and it was a travesty. The DNC selected Mrs. Clinton as their “winner” not the voters. Priebus got a Republican into The White House whether it was his preferred candidate or not. That’s what counts. He did his job against remarkable odds and personal preferences.
Had he failed to do so, then what? He gets hated forever and blamed for Hillary’s triumph. Let us all be careful what we are asking for.
The point is, Trump won the Rep nomination in spite of Priebus — and he likely would have defeated cankles the crook too, with or without the established RNC cronies.
Having Priebus on board may (or may not) have helped smooth the transition for Trump… but based on the sabotage coming from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, its not obvious that Priebus was doing any good now. If the RNC can’t get Obamacare repealed like they promised and like voters expect and demand, then the RNC (and Priebus) are of no value.
The record shows, Ryan and McConnell jerked everyone around with “replace” false hope — despite the costs being too high already. The record also shows McCain got a level of care that ordinary Americans on Obamacare would not get, and McCain paid nothing (taxpayers got the bill for that arrogant sh!thead on top of our own costs).
Priebus could not and cannot coral the antique republicans, so he is useless.
JULY 30 2017
When Cops Join the Resistance
Statements from the Boy Scouts of America, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Suffolk County police suggest Trump’s closest allies have started to desert him.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/trump_s_closest_allies_are_starting_to_desert_him.html
Ah yes, ‘Slate’. An even more reputable source of DNC propaganda than MSNBC.
Good one, Uncle Joe.
LOL, yes, …Slate!
“NOW we’re getting down to business everybody, Slate is here!!”
The Apprentice was a reality TV show. On the show he was straight and fired people to their face. The reality is quite different. Instead of firing people he torments them until they quit like Spicer , Sessions and Priebus. And if they are fired eventually, someone else does it as in the case of Comey and Spicer. The truth is that Trump does not like to fire people and he avoids it, preferring that they resign or someone else does the dirty deed. This week, both Maueen Dowd and Peggy Noonan put out pieces saying Trump is a very weak President. This sounds spot on. But I agree with you Trump has a poor track record of hiring. This new guy Scaramucchi seems to take the cake.
Why do you blindly accept the media version of every story?
What proof do you have that Trump didn’t fire Priebus on the flight back to Washington, and the brief interlude in the car was Priebus saying goodbye to his staffers?
Just because the media didn’t know the firing was coming, doesn’t mean Trumps inner circle didn’t know. It seems to have been in the works for at least a couple weeks.
Why would anyone in Trump’s circle trust anyone in the media? Of course they wouldn’t get a heads up. The departure was a shock to the media, but that says more about the media’s lack of connections than anything else.
There’s little question in the way Comey was fired. And despite all the stories of fake news I find it remarkable how much of what Trump claims is false, gets confirmed eventually by no one other than himself, such as those reports on his frustration with Sessions which for a while was nothing more than media speculation and reporting without named sources
We were debating about Priebus and you “rebutted” with something about Comey???
If Obama wasn’t corrupt, Comey would have been fired by June 2016 (before Trump even got the nomination). I can’t tell whether Comey is accessory to the crimes committed by Debbie Wasserman and former AG Lynch … or if he was just standing there like an idiot while the crimes were committed. Either way, Comey didn’t do his job — which is the reason the Dems were stuck choosing between a senile socialist and the outright criminal they nominated.
Trump, like all the Presidents before him, has to play the cards he was dealt — and Obama left a lot of corruption, fraud and bankruptcy in his wake. Most of the holdovers from Obama’s regime belong in prison — certainly Wasserman, Weiner, Clinton, Lynch, and Holder … probably a lot of others who’s names we haven’t learned yet.
I know what the Democratic party is “supposed to be” and what blue collar workers think it still is … but its just a crime family in practice. And the old guard Republicans are so bent on going to war with somebody/anybody they have forgotten all about the domestic economy.
Trump should be firing a LOT more people in Washington. Probably half the bureaucracy can be eliminated (get rid of the people AND get rid of the positions) — taxpayers outside the beltway wouldn’t miss them at all. They add no value to our lives, those positions ONLY benefit the political class
That’s just smart, not avoiding firing people. You have to pay unemployment if you fire someone. If you badger them into quitting you don’t. Just smart business.
Avoiding, not “not avoiding” sorry
huh? so trump is smart for choosing to publicly humiliate members of his team into quitting rather than fire them?
Why not? It’s the news media making a big deal out of it. They’re public figures, not private citizens. They’re supposed to be serving US, the people. If they’re not…oh well.
Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
Trump hires relatives and fires competents. Jared Kushner’s refrain is “I’m new, I don’t know what I’m doing, I forgot,I didn’t read my email, I was at the meeting but came late, left early and didn’t pay attention. And this is Trump’s #1 go to guy! Talk about relative ability.
Trump surrounds himself with ass kissers and mini-mes and his misadministration is crashing and burning.
Nothing a good old fashioned war or two won’t fix, nothing quite like manufactured threats, death and destruction to silence dissent and galvanise support.
While Trump eggs on admin back-stabbings at the highest level his admin remains a hollow shell. Maybe he doesn’t have enough relatives to staff this big a country. I think Trump just isn’t into the nuts and bolts of running the country.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-appointments.html
The wet farts at the NYT that hated Trump from the beginning still hate him, and the NYT still thinks / writes whatever the DNC tells them to. And they still don’t accept that the country refused to vote for more of the same corruption.
The NYT’s on-going temper tantrum isn’t news.
Medex,
Can you refute the facts presented in the NYT article? Thanks.
You (and the wet farts at NYT) make the assumption that those bureaucrat jobs need to be filled… and they don’t. Bureaucrats benefit from a bloated government payroll, not taxpayers.
If those positions never get filled, Americans outside the beltway will be better off for it.
You and the NYT are so caught up in red tape and established procedure that you forget the whole point of having government — to SERVE THE PUBLIC. Not to serve the bureaucrats.
The NYT complaint piece is based on faulty assumptions and a really poor metric. But then, if Trump wished Americans a good morning, the NYT would find a way to spin it against him. That is why they have no credibility.
Blaming the messenger, eh?
What’s the point? Trump got rid of two campaign mangers before he got the one he wanted. Hillary didn’t fire a campaign manager and blamed him after she lost. Most of those fired; deserved it.
Everyone chided Obama for not ever firing anyone. Trump dumps them like cow pies on the field and now everyone is bitching at that. Amazing what goes on for page views.
and now the Mooch is gone, the dumpster fire continues unabated
this isn’t reality TV, this is The $1.98 Beauty Show
send in the clowns
Trump’s accomplishment has, so far, been to get elected. It’s a big one unless you like welfare states.
It doesn’t look like the Trump White House is going to accomplish anything for the country. No doubt some advisers and staff are on-board to advance their own interests and others are just placeholders. Staff changes in the White House will settle-down and they will contribute nothing. I assume John Kelly is on-board to be a combined domineering and respected presence.
Trump is disconnected politically and won’t have a signature impact on legislature policy. His leadership is to push, but he can’t or won’t pull. Given the composition of the legislature, especially with a non-deliberative Senate, pulls would fall on deaf ears anyway. He is unlikely to impact the 2018 elections. If he does, that would be a feather in his cap.