Chaos.
We could probably come up with a few more words to characterize the Trump administration, but lately “chaos” seems to reign.
Maybe it’s intentional. Maybe it’s how Trump operates his business.
But he’s president of the United States now, and chaos does not bode well for a functioning republic.
This week we learned the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s, Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI)-level clearance, was downgraded to “Secret. ”
Then Trump’s communications director, Hope Hicks, announced her resignation Thursday, one day after informing the House Intelligence Committee her job required her to tell “white lies.”
Today, the New York Times reports Trump is hoping his chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, will say “You’re fired!” to first-daughter and Kushner spouse, Ivanka.
The Times reports:
“Mr. Trump is isolated and angry, as well, according to other friends and aides, as he carries on a bitter feud with his attorney general and watches members of his family clash with a chief of staff he recruited to restore a semblance of order — all against the darkening shadow of an investigation of his ties to Russia.”
“Some aides have expressed clandestine frustration over the fact that Kushner and Ivanka Trump are still in the White House. The president is even reported to have stated they never should have been invited there in the first place.
The Times adds:
“In private conversations, the president vacillates between sounding regretful that Mr. Kushner is taking arrows and annoyed that he is another problem to deal with.”
In addition to Kushner and Ivanka, multiple lower to mid-level White House staffers are reportedly considering resigning their positions for higher-paying ones. The problem is, working for Trump has made them “toxic.”
Buzzfeed quotes a former White House staffer, who stated:
“Things are still pretty bleak inside the White House. I’ve talked to several people in the last week trying to find a way out, but they can’t get out because no one is really hiring people with Trump White House experience. Not a fun time to say the least.”
Here are the Trump administration officials who have resigned or were fired since Trump took the Oath of Office January 20, 2017:
- Sally Yates.
- Preet Bharara.
- James B. Comey.
- Rich Higgins.
- Derek Harvey.
- Anthony Scaramucci
- Michael Flynn
- Katie Walsh
- K.T. McFarland
- Tera Dahl
- Michael Short
- Reince Priebus
- Ezra Cohen-Watnick
- Stephen K. Bannon
- Sebastian Gorka
- William Bradford
- Tom Price
- Jamie Johnson
- Carl Higbie
- Omarosa Manigault
- Taylor Weyeneth
- Rob Porter
- Michael Dubke
- Walter Shaub
- Mark Corallo
- Sean Spicer
- Elizabeth Southerland
- Carl Icahn
- George Sifakis
- Maliz Beams
- Elizabeth Shackelford
- Paul Winfree
- Dina Powell
- Jeremy Katz
- Thomas Shannon
- John Feeley
- Rick Dearborn
So if you know an aspiring Washington staffer looking for a job or an internship, perhaps encourage that person to look somewhere other than the White House–or wait until another administration moves in.
Image credit: thecut.com
