DONALD TRUMP’S NATIONAL POLITICAL DEMOLITION DERBY
For the uninformed, a demolition derby typically consists of five or more cars that compete to win by the drivers deliberately ramming their vehicles into one another until there is only one left that is capable of being driven which becomes the "winner." Popular at county fairs and festivals, the mechanical mayhem is very loud, dramatic and chaotic to watch, as cars repeatedly crash into each other until there is only one left that is capable of driving. Soon, the arena area is littered with broken and inoperable vehicles. It is disorganized, frivolous and non productive, you know, just like President Trump's changing positions on important issues and especially his administrative appointees.
The first year of President Donald Trump's White House has seen more firings, resignations, and reassignments of top staffers than any other first-year administration in modern history. His Cabinet turnover exceeds that of any other administration in the last 100 years. It has a remarkable similarity to a demolition derby with lots of noise, chaos and damage everywhere. Only, in this case, it is political chaos and human damage debris.
One of his earlier more high profile firings was that of FBI director James Comey. The more recent resignations include Hope Hicks, his communications director and John Dowd, his lawyer in connection with the Russia investigation. His recent firings include Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, who was fired 26 hours before he would have been entitled to his pension and National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. President Trump fired Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson by Twitter while Tillerson was flying back from overseas from a diplomatic mission and wasn't aware of it until arriving back in the United States.
According to the Washington Post, here's a list of other appointees who have either been fired or dropped out of sight after their selection by President Trump:
Fired
- Sally Yates. Deputy attorney general. Days with administration: 11. Refused to enforce Trump’s entry ban.
- Preet Bharara. U.S. attorney. Days with administration: 51. Part of purge of U.S. attorneys.
- James B. Comey. FBI director. Days with administration: 110. Allegedly pressured by Trump to scale down investigations.
- Rich Higgins. Director, NSC. Days with administration: 176. Fired after writing a conspiracy-filled memo.
- Derek Harvey. Senior director, NSC. Days with administration: 182. Fired following power shift under national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
- Anthony Scaramucci. Communications director. Days with administration: 11. Fired by Kelly.
Resigned under pressure
- Michael Flynn. National security adviser. Days with administration: 23. Ostensibly fired for having misled Vice President Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
- Katie Walsh. Deputy chief of staff. Days with administration: 68. Moved out of administration to work for a pro-Trump PAC.
- K.T. McFarland. Deputy national security adviser. Days with administration: 118. Pushed out following power shift under McMaster.
- Tera Dahl. Deputy chief of staff, NSC. Days with administration: 166. Reassigned following power shift under McMaster.
- Michael Short. Assistant press secretary. Days with administration: 185. Scaramucci told media that Short would be fired.
- Reince Priebus. Chief of staff. Days with administration: 188. Resigned in favor of Kelly.
- Ezra Cohen-Watnick. Senior director, NSC. Days with administration: 188. Resigned following power shift under McMaster.
- Stephen K. Bannon. Chief strategist. Days with administration: 209. Bannon left after giving a negative interview to American Prospect.
- Sebastian Gorka. Deputy assistant. Days with administration: 211. Butted heads with Kelly.
- William Bradford. Director, Energy. Days with administration: About 120. Past racist comments were made public.
- Tom Price. Director of Health and Human Services. Days with administration: 232. Under fire for taking expensive charter flights.
- Jamie Johnson. Director, DHS. Days with administration: About 230. Past racist comments were made public.
- Carl Higbie. Chief of external affairs, Corporation for National and Community Service. Days with administration: 153. Past racist comments were made public.
- Omarosa Manigault. Director of communications, Office of Public Liaison. Days with administration: 364. Resigned to “pursue other opportunities.” Now stars on CBS’s “Big Brother.”
- Taylor Weyeneth. Deputy chief of staff, Office of Drug Control Policy. Days with administration: About 340. Questions about experience and details on résumé.
- Rob Porter. Staff secretary. Days with administration: 385. Allegations of spousal abuse became public.
Resigned
- Michael Dubke. Communications director. Days with administration: 89. Personal reasons.
- Walter Shaub. Director of Office of Government Ethics. Days with administration: 181. Concern over ethics rules.
- Mark Corallo. Legal team spokesman. Days with administration: 59. Apparently concerned about handling of Trump Tower story.
- Sean Spicer. Press secretary. Days with administration: 181. Uncomfortable with hiring of Scaramucci.
- Elizabeth Southerland. Director, EPA. Days with administration: 193. Disagreement with direction of department.
- Carl Icahn. Special adviser. Days with administration: 211. Resigned in advance of an article about conflicts of interest.
- George Sifakis. Public liaison director. Days with administration: 204. Sifakis was an ally of Priebus.
- Maliz Beams. Counselor, State. Days with administration: 97. Reported differences with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
- Elizabeth Shackelford. Political officer, State. Days with administration: 323. Disagreement with direction of department.
- Paul Winfree. Deputy director. Days with administration: 330. Returning to Heritage Foundation.
- Dina Powell. Deputy national security adviser. Days with administration: 304. Personal reasons.
- Jeremy Katz. Deputy director, NEC. Days with administration: About 340. Personal reasons.
- Thomas Shannon. Under secretary of state for political affairs. Days with administration: 385 and counting. (Resignation announced but not yet in force.) Personal reasons.
- John Feeley. Ambassador to Panama. Days with administration: 385 and counting. Disagreement with administration.
- Rick Dearborn. Deputy chief of staff. Days with administration: 383 and counting. Joining private sector.
It is one thing for a new CEO or corporate head to replace existing executives with those he or she feels will lead the company in a better direction. Here, however, that is not what happened. Almost all of the people on the "missing in action" list were personally selected and originally strongly endorsed by President Trump himself. Furthermore, he assured the American people it was done without the assistance, advice or input from advisers due to his self described skills in selecting the right people for the job. However, when he decided his selected appointees had failed to fully acquiesce to the President's views or directives they quickly fell out of favor and were promptly gone. Most served a shockingly brief period of time before they were fired or forced out of their appointed position. It doesn't take a political expert to know that significant and frequent turnover of people from an organization is not a reflection on those who leave. It is a reflection on those that selected them in the first place and the working conditions. It tells us a substantial amount about the competence of the leader who selected them originally. Here, it provides disturbing information about our elected Commander in Chief.