Comprehensive Impacts of Trump’s Second Year: Cabinet and Other Appointments
This publication is meant to be a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the Trump administration. There are many things that happened during the campaign that are not included. For the series covering the second year, impacts from about January 20, 2018, to January 31, 2019, are included. There are sure to be things missing, but I have done my best to record these impacts. The impacts are compiled under 20 different categories, or articles:
1. Cabinet and Other Appointments;
2. Science & Environment;
3. Women & Families;
4. LBGT;
5. Judicial/Constitutional;
6. Ethics;
7. Targeting free press/free speech/Privacy;
8. Health & Safety;
9. Consumer Protections;
10. Education;
11. Transportation/Infrastructure/Housing;
12. Immigration;
13. Social Contract;
14. Business/Economy;
15. Budget;
16. General Governance;
17. Character;
18. Military/Defense/Police;
19. World; and
20. Some good news. Because there is always some good news.
Since this series takes a long time to write, I will publish each section as I complete it. This article is on Cabinet and other Appointments. An introduction to this year’s series is here. You can read the complete series on the first year of the administration here.
Cabinet and Other Appointments
The Trump administration has seen an unprecedented and record level of turnover in both the executive office and the cabinet — with higher rates than in any of the previous 5 administrations. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas of The Brookings Institution has tracked, measured, and contextualized the turnover, showing that in the executive office, a record 14 people resigned under pressure, 17 people were promoted, and 11 resigned. Jeremy Berke and Grace Panetta of Business Insider also maintains a live update of “causalities of the Trump administration.” In the cabinet, out of 24 positions, 14 have resigned or been fired. Many have also been fired, often by tweet. One of the most unethical firings was of FBI Director Andrew McCabe less than 48 hours from when he would have been eligible for retirement and his long-earned pension. The low number and low quality of appointees should not be surprising, however, considering that the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), the office responsible for recruiting and vetting appointees, is itself plagued with vacancies, turnover, and inexperienced, unqualified people. In fact, the office has significantly fewer people than in prior administrations.
· Early in Trump’s second year, he appointed John Bolton as National Security Advisor. In describing how now is time to panic, reporter Fred Kaplan described how this appointment puts the US on a direct path to war. And reporter Mark Leon Goldberg, who has followed Bolton since 2005, described Bolton’s two mottos: “Allies are a hindrance, and diplomacy is surrender” and warned Americans to be afraid.
· Bolton replaced H.R. McMaster, who was fired abruptly rather than the anticipated multiple firings in the same announcement. The departure of McMaster and other generals has brought us much closer to war than any time in modern history. As reporter Joel Mathis noted, Trump “fancies himself a brawler, wants to surround himself with other brawlers, and the restraint shown by the old generals in questions of politics and policy finally broke his limited patience. Out with the negotiators. In with the the guys who want to fight. And if the new guys don’t have as much experience with actually fighting? No problem: At least they talk tough on Fox News.”
· Surprising Rex Tillerson via tweet, Trump fired Tillerson without notice as Secretary of State while Tillerson was in Africa on official business. Tillerson had advised Trump to take more intelligent foreign policy decisions, and Trump didn’t like being told how dangerous his words and actions are to world affairs. Trump chose CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. That replacement put the Iran nuclear deal in jeopardy.
· A top aid to Tillerson, Steve Goldstein, was also fired for contradicting the official administration account of Tillerson’s firing, which claimed that Trump HAD talked to Tillerson in advance.
· Trump chose Gina Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA. Haspel ran a secret prison in Thailand where she oversaw torture programs and then ordered the destruction of video evidence. In fact, she has a long history with torture. Human rights groups have pushed for her to face criminal charges.
· In the meantime, at the FBI, Chief Christopher Wray showed one of the most blatant shows of xenophobia when he announced — and then defended — the idea that Chinese people in the US pose a threat.
· To replace Steve Goldstein as undersecretary of state, Trump nominated a former host of Fox and Friends, Heather Nauert. Nauert has no previous diplomatic experience and responded to a question about the violence in Syria with “I don’t know what some of you expect us to do.”
· A few months later, Trump nominated Nauert as US Ambassador to the United Nations to replace Nikki Haley. Nauert cited the D-Day landings to showcase the strength of German-American relations. As Barbara Crossette stated, “Choosing Heather Nauert is a sign that [Trump’s] marginalization of the United Nations is nearly complete.”
· In the meantime, 80 percent of the top jobs in Trump’s State Department remain vacant.
· Nauert isn’t the only Fox and Friends host who he wants to elevate to a government position requiring no qualifications whatsoever. Trump reportedly wanted Pete Hegseth to be the new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Another Fox reporter tweeted, “I’ve been told President Trump wants Pete Hegseth to replace [David] Shulkin at the VA after he is fired.” After firing Shulkin via tweet due to travel abuses, the person who Trump eventually nominated was his White House physician, Ronnie Jackson, who had previously given a strange one-hour press conference talking about how “healthy” Trump is and who has no experience at all running a large organization. Jackson eventually withdrew from the nomination after allegations of supplying a White House official with opioids and crashing a government car while driving drunk. Robert Wilkie, who is known as being “politically savvy” but has no healthcare experience, served as interim director. In line with Trump himself, he also has a long history of racism and homophobia.
· In anticipation of Wilkie coming on, Trump loyalists aggressively tried to purge or re-assign staff members who were “perceived to be disloyal to President Trump and his agenda for veterans.” This included transferring “more than a dozen career civil servants who have been moved from the leadership suite at VA headquarters and reassigned to lower-visibility roles.”
· Another Fox executive, Bill Shine, was hired as Trump’s “new right-hand-man for White House communications.” As Brian Stelter noted, Shine’s “move from Fox to the White House further solidifies the backscratching relationship between TV network and Trump’s orbit. But it’s especially eyebrow-raising because Shine resigned last year amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations within the network.” (Spoiler alert: Shine was gone by the end of the first quarter of 2019.)
· Fox isn’t the only network being poached for unqualified advisors. Trump appointed Larry Kudlow, a CNBC commentator, as the director of the National Economic Council to replace Gary Cohn. Reporters Maggie Haberman, Kate Kelly, and Jim Tankersley noted that “the decision to pick Kudlow, a longtime cheerleader of the president, is the latest move by Mr. Trump to surround himself with loyalists in high administrative posts.” And economics professor and former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy Brad DeLong pointed out that “the right way to view this appointment . . . as if Donald Trump were to name William Shatner to command the Navy’s 7th Fleet.”
· In addition, former Disney Channel star, Caroline Sunshine, joined Trump’s press office.
· Trump also appointed Dr. Oz as a health advisor on the Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Dr. Oz has a long history of misusing and abusing science and misleading the public on public health. He is known mostly for being a quack. So he’ll fit nicely around Trump.
· There are unqualified and inexperienced people at all levels of the Trump administration. As one example, Trump hired a 24-year-old intern, who was then promoted six times in a year, eventually becoming the deputy chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. When the public outcry became too loud, Trump fired him and warned him not to speak publicly.
· Trump also nominated Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Kraninger has no experience in consumer finance or consumer protection, or any other relevant subject related to the office. In fact, she has never worked in consumer affairs, never worked in financial services, never worked as a financial regulator, never held public office and never run a government agency
· When FAA Chief Michael Huerta stepped down, Trump wanted to appoint his personal pilot, John Dunkin. He eventually appointed Daniel Elwell as acting chief. Elwell is one of the few appointees who appears to have some experience and qualifications for his job.
· Trump’s administration is also full of nepotism. Trump chose Mitch McConnell’s brother in law, Gordon Hartogensis, to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a Labor Department agency that collects insurance premiums from sponsors of defined-benefit plans and pays out benefits when companies cannot meet their obligations. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, was appointed as Transportation Secretary last year.
· In yet another example of Trump appointing a corporate lawyer or lobbyist to supervise a federal office that regulates a former employer, Trump nominated Dow Chemical attorney Peter C. Wright to head the EPA’s Land and Emergency Management office. And for deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the number two spot, Trump appointed former coal lobbyist and active climate change denier Andrew Wheeler. Spoiler alert: in January 2019, Wheeler took over the EPA completely when Scott Pruitt finally resigned.
· Pruitt wasted no time after leaving the EPA. He became a consultant to billionaire Kentucky coal baron Joseph Craft, the head of the Alliance Resource Partners and a major donor to the Republican party.
· In a similar example, Trump’s entire Wildlife Protection Board, which Trump created to help rewrite rules for importing African animal heads and hides, is full of trophy hunters, some of whom with direct ties to Trump and his family.
· Trump nominated Peter Wright to be the assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing the Superfund program, which was created to clean up the nation’s most hazardous toxic waste sites and also oversees the emergency response to chemical and other hazardous spills. Wright led legal strategy at Dow Chemical, which was accused by regulators (and internal Dow engineers) of submitting disputed data and misrepresenting scientific evidence and delaying cleanups.
· And in another example of Trump nominating someone to head an agency who has worked against the mission of the agency, he appointed Ronald Mortensen, a staunch anti-immigration activist, as the assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, the agency that oversees refugee and immigration issues.
· In fact, Trump has gutted all 15 of his executive departments and has handed every federal regulatory agency over to the industries that they are tasked with regulating.
· After a seven-month standoff, Trump also appointed Republican Congressman Jim Bridenstine to lead NASA. Bridenstine has no scientific background or experience and is most known for being a climate change denier.
· Speaking of climate change deniers, Trump appointed William Happer to his National Security Council. Happer is a professor who has questioned any human involvement in climate change. He will lead emerging technologies.
· Trump also nominated Jeffrey Bossert Clark to be the assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources. Clark is a long-time climate change denier. As an attorney, Clark represented numerous industry clients, including BP in its efforts to fight claims from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and spill.
· Unsurprisingly, Trump has also prioritized homophobes in his administration. He nominated Eric Dreiband to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Dreiband represented the University of North Carolina when the state was sued by the Justice Department for restricting trans people’s access to public restrooms. He also worked for non-profit organizations seeking religious exemptions from the Affordable Care Act to deny contraceptive coverage to their employees.
· Trump appointed Dr. Robert Redfield as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Redfield is a Christian extremist with a history of demonizing gay people and single parents.
· Gary Cohn, Trump’s most senior economic adviser left the administration after pushing through the tax cuts for the most wealthy. Later, Cohn was quoted by Bob Woodward as saying that he was astounded by how “dumb” Trump was and how Trump lacked a basic understanding of how federal debt works.
· The director of the Census Bureau, John Thompson, also abruptly resigned, leaving a wake of fear since the Bureau plays an integral role in both elections and in government functions.
· Trump forced Jeff Pon out of his position as director of the Office of Personnel Management. Trump was trying to merge OPM functions with the General Services Administration and fold its policymaking responsibilities into the White House. Pon resisted that plan and was thus forced to resign. His “decision” to resign was a surprise to him. But by classifying Pon’s departure as a resignation cleared up potential trouble with the law governing federal vacancies so that Trump could easily appoint a replacement.
· Trump’s Interior secretary Ryan Zinke finally stepped down after using the office for personal gain. The deputy secretary, David Bernhardt, took over the agency. Bernhardt was a fossil fuels and water industry lobbyist before coming into Trump’s administration.
· Jeff Sessions was also finally forced out.
· Matthew Whitaker became acting attorney general. Whitaker was, among other things, involved in an invention marketing company that the Federal Trade Commission shut down after calling it a scam. The company scammed US military veterans out of their life savings. Whitaker also said that judges should be Christian and have a biblical view of justice and proposed blocking non-religious people from judicial appointments. He is also anti-choice.
· Trump eventually nominated William Barr as attorney general. Barr is notoriously anti-choice, anti-LGBT rights, and an anti-immigrant xenophobe. He served as attorney general under George Bush, where he implemented a draconian approach to law enforcement that fostered a system of mass incarceration that disproportionately harmed communities of color.
He also believes that the president is not only above the law, but IS the law. While serving under Bush, he argued for aggressive and expansive executive powers and was involved in the pardons of six Reagan officials who lied to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair that ended a major investigation into the White House. Barr has also refused to recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. (Spoiler alert: At the completion of Mueller’s investigation, Barr refused to release the entire report and instead drafted a 4-page summary that cherry picked what he wanted the public to believe.)
· U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly quit after disagreeing with Trump’s isolationist policies while Trump continues to withdraw the US from many international agreements. Mattis’s resignation marks the end of an era where people close to Trump could try to curb his most disruptive impulses. Mattis, along with John Kelly and Rex Tillerson — also now gone — were dubbed the “troika of sanity,” the “axis of adults,” and the “committee to save America” among Washington insiders. When Mattis delivered a harsh rebuke of Trump’s neglect of allies and tolerance of authoritarians, Trump removed him two months early.
· To replace Mattis at the Department of Defense, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan took the lead. Shanahan is a former corporate executive at Boeing who has no experience in military, foreign policy, international affairs, or counterterrorism, or even government. (Editor’s Note: Shanahan is still “acting” Defense Secretary as of March 2019 when his agency announced that it was directing $1 billion to help fund a border wall.)
The next article will be on Trump’s impact on science and the environment.
