Milbank: Government not ‘The Apprentice’

The chaos takes on many forms, but most of it stems from a single cause: Trump’s determination to run the country like “The Apprentice.”

The common thread to the mayhem and bungling is Trump’s insistence on staffing his government with officials serving in temporary, “acting” roles at the pleasure of the president and without the stature or protection of Senate confirmation. This allows Trump to demand absolute subservience from appointees. Because he can replace them at will, they don’t contradict him. But this tentative status also means they lack authority within their agencies and the stature to stand up to Trump when he’s wrong.

It’s no mere coincidence that the border debacle is the work of Trump’s Homeland Security Department, where every major border- and immigration-related agency is led by an “acting” official. Trump’s acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, John Sanders, just resigned after two months on the job.

It’s no mere coincidence, either, that the Iran debacle is occurring at a time when the Pentagon has been leaderless since Jim Mattis resigned as defense secretary in December.

And it’s no mere coincidence that the man at the fulcrum of a chaotic White House, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, also serves in “acting” status. Politico’s Nancy Cook reports that Trump is tiring of Mulvaney (he had the nerve to cough during a Trump TV interview), though he might not yet replace him with a fourth chief of staff, because he likes Mulvaney’s “hands-off approach” to Trump’s “whims and decision-making style.”

Trump is unabashed in his preference for this “Apprentice”-style leadership. It’s a theme of a new book about Trump’s Cabinet, “The Best People,” by Yahoo News correspondent Alexander Nazaryan. Of his fondness for acting officials, Trump said: “It gives me a lot of leeway. It gives me great flexibility. … It’s such a big deal to get people approved nowadays.”

In other words, the administration is run by people on perpetual tryout, unable to make long-term plans or to command the respect of those they (nominally) lead. The Federal Aviation Administration, which botched its handling of the Boeing 737 Max crashes, has been led by acting officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which bungled the recall of Fisher-Price’s Rock ‘n Play bassinet, has been run by an acting chairwoman.

Now, Trump’s “actings” are causing babies to go hungry, and they may soon bumble us into war with Iran. But that’s OK, because Trump likes the “flexibility.”