The turnover of high-level officials, including resignations and firings, has characterized the Trump administration. Early losses were carryovers from previous administrations, including firing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and the resignation of Ethics Director Walter Shaub.
Another high-level sack was FBI Director James Comey, who had refused to "pledge loyalty" to the president. His responsibility is to enforce the law as opposed to obeying the president.
The recent firing of FBI Deputy Director McCabe, hours before eligibility for full retirement benefits, raises alarm. Although fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, public pressure from President Trump has raised serious ethical questions.
There have been initial and continuing questions of ethics and qualifications regarding many of Trump's cabinet appointees. Bordering on comedy is the appointment of Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who once not only wanted to abolish the department but during an earlier campaign speech had forgotten that the Energy Department was one of three for which he urged total elimination.
Other appointments were total farce. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is so unqualified that she required the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Pence to get her confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate. She has no degrees from public high schools or colleges, having attended only private institutions. She complains of underperforming public schools but admits to not having visited even one.
Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt has spent his career fighting the very agency he was appointed to head.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is headed by Ben Carson, who opposes public housing programs that are integral to that department's mission. Although he is hailed as a competent neurosurgeon, he has zero experience in administering anything so much as a committee, let alone an agency with a $40 billion budget.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is more committed to oil, mineral and timber development and selling off public lands than in preserving public parks, monuments and lands for future generations.
Trump has appointed Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to head the Consumer Protection Bureau in his spare time. Mulvaney has long recommended the demise of that agency.
Trump's appointees are guilty of transgressions ranging from misuse of public funds to outright corruption. Former Congressman Tom Price traded in securities of corporations directly affected by his role as a congressman. Nevertheless, Republicans confirmed him as secretary of Health and Human Services. When his abuse of public funds for first-class flights for ridiculously short hops came to light and angered Trump, he fired Price, who never should have been appointed in the first place.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has similarly been exposed for raiding public funds for obscenely outrageous travel expenses.
EPA Director Pruitt improperly insists on first-class travel on the grounds that, in coach class, citizens who pay his salary challenge him regarding his policies.
Interior Secretary Zinke similarly has abused travel paid for by public funds - this in addition to spending $139,000 for his office doors.
HUD Secretary Carson has incurred some $31,000 for a dining table for his office. While we don't expect him to eat from a folding card table, we would expect him to have enough sense not to incur such expenditures while beneficiaries of his departmental programs face severe cuts.
These wealthy Republican appointees are accustomed to high living. When they take "salary cuts" for high-level government appointments, they no doubt feel entitled to raid public funds to compensate for "sacrifices" endured rendering public service.
The list could go on. The transgressions of the Trump team make the gifts rendered to former President Eisenhower's presidential assistant, Sherman Adams, resemble mere penny ante chiseling.
But even the major derelictions of duty and abuse of funds, as tragic as they are for the nation, are dwarfed by what is surely Trump's forthcoming absolute worst and most dangerous appointee, John Bolton, as National Security Agency director. Super-hawk John Bolton was a major advocate of the Iraq war and has long advocated war against Iran and North Korea, including initial American first strikes.
Let's briefly review what led up to this total fiasco and impending disaster. During the national GOP convention, retired general Michael Flynn whipped up the delegates to lynch mob-type frenzy with chants of "lock her up." As if locking up political prisoners were not enough to resemble a third-rate banana republic, more ominous was the mainstream media gift to Flynn of a free pass - nary a peep that such behavior by a dominant American political party is unacceptable.
But Trump loved it and appointed Flynn to head the National Security Agency. When Flynn was found to be lying about previous meetings with Russian operatives, Trump sacked him, replacing him with General H.R. McMaster. Most observers, including Trump's severest critics, saw this as a definite improvement.
General McMaster, along with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recommended that America honor the Iran nuclear deal and urged diplomacy with North Korea. Tillerson, favoring diplomacy, was recently sacked in favor of Mike Pompeo, who urges ripping up the Iran nuclear deal. McMaster is now sacked, to be replaced by Bolton, who never met a war he didn't like. Bolton and Pompeo will play to Trump's most dangerous instincts.
The NSA director is supposed to be an "honest broker," bringing various options to the president. A recent New York Times editorial titled "Yes, John Bolton Really is that Dangerous" observed that "It is hard to see Mr. Bolton as an honest broker."
Even hard-core conservative George Will labels Bolton as the "second-most dangerous American." Will writes, referring to Iran and North Korea, "Bolton thinks bombing both might make the world safer. What could go wrong with that?"
Good question. We now have troops stationed in 150 nations and a war in Afghanistan going on for 18 years.
The last things we need are additional wars with Iran and North Korea, wars that are avoidable.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in the Monroe Times.
Another high-level sack was FBI Director James Comey, who had refused to "pledge loyalty" to the president. His responsibility is to enforce the law as opposed to obeying the president.
The recent firing of FBI Deputy Director McCabe, hours before eligibility for full retirement benefits, raises alarm. Although fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, public pressure from President Trump has raised serious ethical questions.
There have been initial and continuing questions of ethics and qualifications regarding many of Trump's cabinet appointees. Bordering on comedy is the appointment of Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who once not only wanted to abolish the department but during an earlier campaign speech had forgotten that the Energy Department was one of three for which he urged total elimination.
Other appointments were total farce. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is so unqualified that she required the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Pence to get her confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate. She has no degrees from public high schools or colleges, having attended only private institutions. She complains of underperforming public schools but admits to not having visited even one.
Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt has spent his career fighting the very agency he was appointed to head.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is headed by Ben Carson, who opposes public housing programs that are integral to that department's mission. Although he is hailed as a competent neurosurgeon, he has zero experience in administering anything so much as a committee, let alone an agency with a $40 billion budget.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is more committed to oil, mineral and timber development and selling off public lands than in preserving public parks, monuments and lands for future generations.
Trump has appointed Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to head the Consumer Protection Bureau in his spare time. Mulvaney has long recommended the demise of that agency.
Trump's appointees are guilty of transgressions ranging from misuse of public funds to outright corruption. Former Congressman Tom Price traded in securities of corporations directly affected by his role as a congressman. Nevertheless, Republicans confirmed him as secretary of Health and Human Services. When his abuse of public funds for first-class flights for ridiculously short hops came to light and angered Trump, he fired Price, who never should have been appointed in the first place.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has similarly been exposed for raiding public funds for obscenely outrageous travel expenses.
EPA Director Pruitt improperly insists on first-class travel on the grounds that, in coach class, citizens who pay his salary challenge him regarding his policies.
Interior Secretary Zinke similarly has abused travel paid for by public funds - this in addition to spending $139,000 for his office doors.
HUD Secretary Carson has incurred some $31,000 for a dining table for his office. While we don't expect him to eat from a folding card table, we would expect him to have enough sense not to incur such expenditures while beneficiaries of his departmental programs face severe cuts.
These wealthy Republican appointees are accustomed to high living. When they take "salary cuts" for high-level government appointments, they no doubt feel entitled to raid public funds to compensate for "sacrifices" endured rendering public service.
The list could go on. The transgressions of the Trump team make the gifts rendered to former President Eisenhower's presidential assistant, Sherman Adams, resemble mere penny ante chiseling.
But even the major derelictions of duty and abuse of funds, as tragic as they are for the nation, are dwarfed by what is surely Trump's forthcoming absolute worst and most dangerous appointee, John Bolton, as National Security Agency director. Super-hawk John Bolton was a major advocate of the Iraq war and has long advocated war against Iran and North Korea, including initial American first strikes.
Let's briefly review what led up to this total fiasco and impending disaster. During the national GOP convention, retired general Michael Flynn whipped up the delegates to lynch mob-type frenzy with chants of "lock her up." As if locking up political prisoners were not enough to resemble a third-rate banana republic, more ominous was the mainstream media gift to Flynn of a free pass - nary a peep that such behavior by a dominant American political party is unacceptable.
But Trump loved it and appointed Flynn to head the National Security Agency. When Flynn was found to be lying about previous meetings with Russian operatives, Trump sacked him, replacing him with General H.R. McMaster. Most observers, including Trump's severest critics, saw this as a definite improvement.
General McMaster, along with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recommended that America honor the Iran nuclear deal and urged diplomacy with North Korea. Tillerson, favoring diplomacy, was recently sacked in favor of Mike Pompeo, who urges ripping up the Iran nuclear deal. McMaster is now sacked, to be replaced by Bolton, who never met a war he didn't like. Bolton and Pompeo will play to Trump's most dangerous instincts.
The NSA director is supposed to be an "honest broker," bringing various options to the president. A recent New York Times editorial titled "Yes, John Bolton Really is that Dangerous" observed that "It is hard to see Mr. Bolton as an honest broker."
Even hard-core conservative George Will labels Bolton as the "second-most dangerous American." Will writes, referring to Iran and North Korea, "Bolton thinks bombing both might make the world safer. What could go wrong with that?"
Good question. We now have troops stationed in 150 nations and a war in Afghanistan going on for 18 years.
The last things we need are additional wars with Iran and North Korea, wars that are avoidable.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in the Monroe Times.
