Mucking out the stalls in the Deep State stables.
President Trump often refers to government waste as part of the Washington “swamp” he has vowed to drain – but the phrase has also become shorthand for bureaucratic resistance to his agenda and policies. Putting inspectors general, or IGs, under the microscope is the latest push in Trump’s post-impeachment purge of government officials whom the president and his conservative supporters say have worked to undermine his agenda and sabotage political appointees’ efforts to carry it out, several sources familiar with the discussions have told RealClearPolitics.
Heightened monitoring of IG investigations and their findings has yet to lead to anyone’s ouster, but key administration officials and Trump allies are urging the president to do some housecleaning and get rid of Obama-era watchdogs sprinkled throughout the administration. Several acting inspectors general appointed during the Obama administration are still operating at key government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Treasury Department.
“The federal bureaucracy has gone to war with the Trump administration, and their people have targeted and taken out many Trump’s officials,” a former White House official told RCP. “Those who are naturally responsible are the IGs, and they are complicit in their inaction.”
“The IGs, many put in place by the Obama administration, empower the deep state to go after the administration. … It’s absolutely nuts,” the former official added. “If [officials] were scared of the consequences of breaking the law, they wouldn’t go after the Trump administration like they do. That’s why you have the deep state gone wild. No one is watching the watchdogs.”
Note that this article is from March 10th. Now let’s have the author bring us up to date:
Breaking: Trump is firing 7 IGs in one fail swoop, sources confirm to @RealClearNews. Most likely will be the IGs that were appointed by Pres. Obama or beforehand. He wants his own people in those positions now. Trump during his briefing said he has "put in 7 names" for IGs.
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) April 7, 2020
Good. At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, I’ll say it yet again: By now, there should not be so much as a single Obama stay-behind left in place anywhere in the Executive branch. Period. Hopefully, Trump is thinking of this as nothing more than a good, if way overdue, start.
Trump’s biggest blunder has been to let these ill-intentioned saboteurs keep their jobs; he shouldn’t have, and that mistake has proven very expensive indeed—not just for him and his agenda, but for the entire nation. Cristina reminds us that Reagan, at least, wasn’t suckered by the nefarious Deep State weasels:
Flashback: On day one of his administration president Ronald Reagan fired all IGs. The usual suspects were up in arms but the Reagan presidency went on just fine. Hiring or firing IGs is the president’s prerogative.
On Inauguration Day, Mr. Reagan sent notice to Congress that he had removed 13 inspectors general and two acting inspectors general in 15 agencies.
He said that the discovery of fraud, waste and mismanagement of Federal funds was an ”important priority” of his Administration and that it was essential for him to have the ”fullest confidence” in the ability and integrity of each inspector general.
Why, it’s almost as if the President thinks he might have some kind of influence over the Executive Branch or something, innit? But we know that’s a purely preposterous notion, risible on its very face. After all, no less an expert on the Constitution’s explicit separation-of-powers mandate than Adam Schitt says so.
Schiff: President Trump’s decision to fire Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is yet another blatant attempt by the President to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 4, 2020
Or, cutting right to the chase: Fuck off and die, Shitthead. Five minutes ago wouldn’t be soon enough to suit me.
- Entries
I believe that Trump had to, and still in certain circumstances has to, tread carefully in firing people just because they were appointed by ZeroBambam, because even some Senators on “our” side want to have deniability for why they don’t vote for impeachment. McConnell can keep them in line (or so he says to up his Own Power) if that deniability is there.
Trump, having worked and built so much in NYC, Atlantic City, Florida, and overseas, knows the Art of the Possible is part of the Art of the Deal.
He also knows that using events to his advantage increases his Art of the Possible, if he is patient and plays the game well.
I hated Office Politics. I kept my head down and did my job and stayed neutral when I could. I didn’t know the Art and even when I learned it, I wasn’t good at it. As a spy I would be burned and dead in two weeks.
I did know how not to screw up the Deal and extract myself from the sh!tstorm if it came to that. Well. Almost. I made it 25 years and managed to learn enough and accumulate enough to leave the Game and still take care of me and mine.
Which makes me appreciate Trump so much more today than I ever did. That man is friggin’ unbelievable.
I don’t think even Trump knew how bad it was in DC until after he had been there a couple years. The party was of little help, almost as a big a resistor as the commies. Slowly though he has found real Americans that he can depend on.
The exception is the economic team. Trump knew these people and picked well.