Trump Trusts Very Few People, and His Family’s Role

Trump Trusts Very Few People

How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?

Trump trusts very few people, with his practice of just his family and a few front men and women running his campaign.  Travelling the country campaigning, he could have met many of the best Republicans, except they were shying away from him.  He certainly did not make any friends among the 16 other leading contenders for the Republican nomination, except Ben Carson, and his old buddy (Bridgegate) Chris Christie.  He even embarrassed VP-to-be Mike Pence by trying to dump him at the last minute.  Surprisingly, he worked with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.  Unfortunately, he picked has-beens Newt Gingrich, and controversial Rudy Giuliani, and alt-right (being polite) leader Steve Bannon, contrasted against his effective not-give-an-inch women spokespersons.  While they were chosen for the campaign, Trump has no other friends in government that he knows or trusts.  That is why he had to bring in his family to help him pick the cabinet.  Somehow, they are going to delegate or select the 4,000 Department political appointments as well as the 12 cabinet Secretaries.  That amounts to about 300 per department.  Apparently, they just learned that they have to pick the entire White House staff, also.  (It’s a good thing that Trump is the smartest military man, wall builder, and tax expert in the country.  Hey, he set himself up for this one.)

I was always wondering if Trump’s family was going to help form a Regime by taking leading Administration posts.  That wasn’t the plan – they were going to manage the business independently.  Actually, they know the business and help develop the 524-company links in the Trump Organization.  On the other hand, they also have no government experience.  They don’t really run all of these businesses, but in at least half, just rent out the Trump name.  But they are young, and able to learn and handle details, or delegate them, while Trump is just the showman.  Now that they started in on the Transition team, some sources state that they also want full security clearance.  Update:  This has been denied by someone in the Trump transition team.   I was hoping that they would get security clearances, since they could act as a sensibility barrier to his opening the nuclear briefcase.

The involvement of his kids and Jared Kushner only creates an incredible conflict of interest with Trump’s businesses if they stay in the business, instead of switching to the administration.  Thus the subtitle:  How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?  (That song dates to 1919 as our troops returned from Paris and World War I, to go back to their farms.)  The young Trumps now have a taste of power, global outlook, a capability to lead and change America, while still staying loyal to and helping their father.  Much more exciting than going back to their ho-hum billionaire lives.  Plus, they can all stay in the new Washington D.C. Trump tower.  While their ideas are fresher and less doctrinaire than the Donald, they have given some indication that the apples have not fallen far from the tree.

Follow up:  There are anti-nepotism laws that prevent Trump’s family from also serving in government.  This includes his son-in-law Jared Kushner.  However, the rules do not seem to apply to Trump’s ex-wives.  Ivana Trump wants to become ambassador to the Czech Republic, her home country.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
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