The White House Mess A shakeup needs to start with some self-reflection at the top.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-white-house-mess-1496186985
White House aides are leaking that President Trump is considering a staff shakeup to stop them from leaking, and the casualty on Monday was communications director Mike Dubke. Mr. Trump certainly needs to fix his White House mess, but staff changes won’t matter unless the President accepts that he is the root of the dysfunction.
Mr. Dubke’s departure was rumored for weeks, though he’d been on the job for only three months. He wasn’t the problem, and his replacement won’t be the solution. It’s impossible to run a communications operation, or a policy shop, if the top man prefers chaotic, make-it-up-as-you-go management.
Take two recent examples. In late April Mr. Trump decided after consulting with a couple of advisers that he wanted to unilaterally withdraw from Nafta. No staff preparation. No warning to Mexico or Canada.
As word spread that the announcement was imminent, other aides and business leaders swung into action to prevent it, including pleas to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call the President. Mr. Trump stood down, but the result was wasted political energy and economic uncertainty.
Then there was the fire drill over Mr. Trump’s tax plan. The White House National Economic Council had been working to develop a plan to send to Congress, but suddenly the President announced publicly that he wanted it rolled out in days. The result was a one-pager that moved in the right policy direction but was easily attacked for its lack of details. Mr. Trump may have wanted to galvanize his team, but the drill wasted time and did little to build a Republican consensus in Congress.
This is apparently how Mr. Trump likes to govern, and he has built a White House tower of Babel in that image. Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, has too little power and must read constantly that his job is in jeopardy. Steve Bannon is supposed to be the keeper of the populist flame, but his coterie of allies leak relentlessly against economics aide Gary Cohn and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Son-in-law Jared Kushner is a loyal, calming influence, but the family tie means he is hard to fire and complicates relations with others in the Administration. Sean Spicer is supposed to explain what’s going on to a hostile press corps when he hasn’t been told the facts, which might be contradicted by Mr. Trump in any case.
General Counsel Don McGahn has been an able judge picker but on all evidence has little influence on the President’s behavior. At a minimum Mr. McGahn should have been in the room when Mr. Trump spoke privately to FBI Director James Comey in February about Michael Flynn. Mr. McGahn should be advising Mr. Trump to avoid such legal traps, and if the President is ignoring that advice Mr. McGahn should resign and tell Mr. Trump to get somebody he will heed.
On that score, it isn’t reassuring that Mr. Trump is said to have retained his longtime New York lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, to handle the Russia investigation. Mr. Kasowitz is a babe in the Beltway who has a major Russian client in OJSC Sberbank . Mr. Trump needs to hire a lawyer experienced in Washington political and legal cases and then deputize him to handle everything regarding special counsel Robert Mueller and the Russian question.
The rest of Mr. Trump’s White House reshuffle should be aimed at delivering on his campaign promise to pass reform legislation and spur faster growth. Either give Mr. Priebus the power to run the White House, or hire someone Mr. Trump will trust to impose order on competing factions.
Tell Mr. Bannon to stop the guerrilla warfare or get out. There are plenty of conservatives who can counter the liberal instincts of Mr. Kushner and Ivanka in White House councils, starting with Mike Pence. Why not give the Vice President more policy authority?
Mr. Trump also needs a formal policy process for debating legislative initiatives like health care and tax reform. Members of Congress tell us they have no clear idea whom to talk to with a question about specific policies. This compounds the internal confusion because Congress and other outsiders will bombard everyone on the senior staff. Lt. Gen. McMaster seems to have built this process on foreign policy, but it isn’t clear Mr. Cohn has the same authority on the domestic agenda.
The larger reality is that Mr. Trump is wasting the precious asset of time. He has a shortening window for legislative achievements before the 2018 election. Presidents typically get a staff who reflect their governing style, and if Mr. Trump can’t show more personal discipline, the fair conclusion will be that he likes the chaos.
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