When Will Trump Learn How to Fire Somebody?
Trump really needs to find a book about: “The Art of the Resignation”, or “You’re Fired, er, I mean Resigned”.
How can Trump be so naive about firing people, after all the years that he ran the Apprentice, and became the person known for “You’re Fired”? The NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) don’t really work for government employees, as they do for the Trump Organization. Oddly, it seems as if government employees actually work for the American people, who pay their salaries, not for Trump personally. Trump was on the Apprentice of Trump Productions from 2004-15, but somehow 14 seasons.
When Trump finally decides that somebody that he totally failed to vet, or overlooked their gross conflicts, needs to be let go, and gets somebody else to retire them, he still doesn’t realize that they are now free to spill the beans. As if they haven’t been leaking them already, after being tired of being cursed at, publicly insulted or insulted in front of other staff, and being scapegoated, and being tired of Trump’s lies, reversals, and lack of trust of the best government agencies.
Trump also cannot fire somebody in person in real life. Remember when Trump fired FBI Director Comey when Comey was addressing the FBI in Los Angeles, and there was the question whether he could fly back to Washington D.C. in a government jet. Comey heard of the firing on the TV news in the room. After firing him for his handling of the Clinton email investigation, the next day, Trump spilled his own beans and admitted that it was for the Russian investigation.
The grossest case is that of Andrew McCabe, Director of the FBI, who Trump personally rushed to fire 36 hours before he could finish earning his pension. Trump not only maximally insulted McCabe after 21 years of dedicated service, but lost any loyalty left in all 3 million federal government workers, independent of their party affiliation.
Having left McCabe without his retirement, and having disgraced him, McCabe had no income choice but to write a tell-all book, and appear on every TV interview show to sell his book as much as possible. McCabe will also be bringing a civil suit, but we don’t know any details yet. The leaks that McCabe was charged with, were in fact about the investigation of Clinton, and not Trump.
Then there were Trump insults in ignoring his loyal backer and experienced advisor Chris Christie, and not offering him the Vice Presidency, or any Department Secretary after he ran the Administration set up. This is attributed to his having put Jared Kushner’s father in jail.
Then there was the case of Omarosa Manigault, although she had no real duties, who Trump hired to provide a Black in the administration, and who would spill the story on the lack of minority concern in the administration. She also wrote an exposure book, and knew how to address the media. It was also embarrassing to the administration that Trump had a relative of his offer her a maximal salary to essentially do nothing but shut up about the administration.
Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over Twitter. Tillerson was CEO of Exxon before he took on the Secretary job.
Trump’s maximally insulting firings discourage talented and knowledgeable people from working for him, and maybe the Nation suffers, depending how conflicted the appointments are, and they seem to be all conflicted these days.
The New York Times has a list of 42 administration or cabinet members who have left Trump in the first two years. Fourteen were cabinet or federal agency members. The other 28 were in the White House. Some of these never even made the press. Four were communications directors. Scaramucci has the shortest record, fired after only 10 days. Nine of the top 21 cabinet or White House positions have changed hands at least once. As of the start of this year, staff turnover of senior White House aides was at 65%.
Trump is undoubtedly violating the Official Records Act, by destroying the translators notes of his secret meetings with Vladimir Putin, and in many other ways. At least two people are needed to tape together the pages that Trump tears up in anger.
The New York Times today counted Trump’s denigration of the Mueller investigation over a thousand times. I think the number I heard today of contacts with Russia was 170, but McCabe just said that it was over a thousand.
Dasvidania (goodbye in Russian). Something that Trump is unwilling to say to Putin. With two more years to go, we all should learn some Russian.
