As is painfully apparent, the Trump Administration is going through several growing pains. While there have been plenty of rumors circulating as to the reason why, most have been completely fabricated to fit a false narrative.
First, the Trump Administration is having a difficult time controlling narratives. Here is an example – when Trump sent a tweet about Russia and Crimea, he completely missed the opportunity to tweet about Humana’s health exchange pullout and the fact that the IRS will no longer be enforcing tax penalties in 2017. Sean Spicer, at his daily briefing, missed the exact same opportunity. Trump did correct the mistake later in the day (after Spicer’s briefings) but these mistakes are starting to add up.
Some of this can be corrected by shuffling the team around a bit. I know people like Spicer yelling at the media, I do myself, but this is only one duty of a press secretary. Josh Earnest had an uncanny ability to flip media questions into an answer that would fit THEIR agenda. This simply isn’t happening right now.
The second problem that exists here is lack of staff. Trump was overwhelmed with the number of staffers that he had to hire to run the West Wing – he thought that those employees were neutral parties. Consequently, 66% of those in the White House, and other offices (CIA, DHS), are Obama employees in a holdover pattern. This is turning out to be a real problem – do Obama staffers, who all unquestionably voted for Clinton, have Trumps best interest in mind? Of course, not.
As an aside, there are over 1400 staff positions that need to be confirmed by Senate. We are not even close to that number. Do I expect Trump to personally interview each applicant? No – this is the job of Chief of Staff. Reince is doing an AWFUL job right now. Not only our we behind when it comes to key hires, but those Obama holdovers have now created problems through the leaks.
Further, Reince has made no attempt to fire the remaining holdovers and fill their roll via recess appointments. Regan and both Bushes used recess appointments to hire critical staff until their hires were confirmed. Recess appointments last one year and don’t need any Senate vote, a powerful tool that isn’t being used by CoS.
My last criticism of Reince is that he didn’t properly vet Puzder. This was his responsibility, and it’s a shame that Trump has to look like an idiot for something that wasn’t done the right way.
While this only scratches the surface, I hope this helps someone understand the problems. These problems are very circular and are easy to fix. Luckily, Trump has never been in politics before and voters are giving him the benefit of the doubt. Its time to play on offense again, folks.
edit: to add, we now find in the news that the IC is withholding information from Trump. Of course, they're still Obama holdovers. Its time to start using recess appointments and fast.