Donald Trump touts “extreme vetting” of people trying to get into the United States. Yet he has done an extremely poor job of vetting the people he let into the White House:
One of the people Trump hired for the White House was working as a foreign agent while advising him during the election. His campaign chairman caught the Justice Department’s attention for similarly surreptitious work. And a third campaign adviser was reportedly surveilled by the FBI as part of an investigation into whether or not he was a Russian spy.
The tales of Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Carter Page — none of whom still work for Trump — have created a steady drip of allegations that have clouded Trump’s early presidency and raised persistent questions about his judgment.
At worst, Trump’s personnel picks appear to have left his campaign — and perhaps his White House — vulnerable to the influence of foreign powers. At best, they expose the long-term implications of his understaffed and inexperienced campaign organization and undermine his promises to surround himself with top notch talent.
“Vetting new hires is standard procedure for presidential campaigns for exactly this reason,” said Alex Conant, who advised Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Every employee is also a potential liability on a presidential campaign” [Julie Pace, “The Best People? Trump’s Personnel Picks Haunt Him,” AP, 2017.04.13].
One of Trump’s core promises was that he would use his managerial acumen to surround himself with “only the best people.” His failure to do so is just one more example of how he oversold his businessman quals. He’s not a leader. He’s not a skilled manager. He’s a blustering bully guided by greed and compensating for incompetence. He has saddled himself and the country with bad actors and empty chairs that create chaos, embarrassment, and a policy vacuum.
Donald Trump’s management style is no way to run a country. It’s no way to run a gas station. It’s a way to make a mess
Related: NPR played an interview with President George W. Bush this morning. On foreign aid and immigration, he sounded sensitive and sensible, the way the President of the United States ought.
Who knows if Trump can vet or not. So far as we can tell, he hasn’t tried, yet!
Drumpf’s SIL neglected to inform congress of many meetings with shady Russians when given the opportunity. I guess as the bogus potus SIL he will get as many mulligans as he wants.
All those folks were white, and sycophants … they don’t need no vettin’.
Use in-group identity as criterion for vetting, and you’ll miss all sorts of miscreants and incompetents.