President Trump's biggest failure has been his inability to get a handle on personnel issues and sift the wheat from the deep state chaff.
But I think, in Ric Grenel, he has a winner. The guy's smart, gutsy and has no compunction about cutting to the chase. For example: "Ric Grenell Strips FBI of Election Security Candidate Intelligence Briefings".
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He's getting a non-deep state crew together.
ReplyDeleteIf he wins, next term is gonna be fun.
I think so, too. Trump unbound is going to be great. He won't have to worry about the next election, he can show even less regard for media opinions than he does now, and the establishment press and the Vichy conservatives on Twitter can continue to watch their slide toward maximum irrelevance. Plus, we might even see some deep state apparatchiks go to jail. In any event, I'll keep a good thought.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, Trump being Trump, he's not waiting for the next election: "President Donald John Trump finally fired Democrat henchman Steve Linick as inspector general at the State Department."
ReplyDeleteI disagree, I think he knows who is who, and he uses them for purposes that aren't always apparent. I totally agree on Ric Grenel, he's a keeper. I hope his next job in the administration is a big one. I think he appointed Atkinson to get him connected to Ukraine, now Atkinson is going down with Ciaramella. Ciaramella was on the ground floor of that massacre in Ukraine. I think Trump fed him the fake phone call to get him involved because there are much bigger things coming in Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteI don't think, in the early days, he had a good understanding of the depth and breadth of the deep state; however, I don't think that's necessarily surprising since he was a Washington outsider. I do believe that he is now learning quickly. And I don't discount the shrewdness he has shown in manipulating some of the people who he discovered to be enemies. The inability of Trump's foes to understand him, and their tendency to underestimate him, are two of the best things he's got going for him.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to agree to disagree. He's had his own private security force for over 40 years. He's been feeding these people cocktails for all that time. Building in the most corrupt big cities in the world, he knows the swamp. Steve Winn, no slouch himself, said years ago "Trump always has the best information". I think Trump knows stuff that would curl our hair.
ReplyDeleteI'll amend my observation to the extent of saying deep state hires (or deep state personnel kept in existing positions) were not the only problem; some were just bad hires (Anthony Scaramucci was manifestly unfit to be Communications director; while not so obviously bad, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly and Jeff Sessions sure didn't work out, and I think Tillerson and Sessions should have been non-starters in the first place).
ReplyDeleteBut here's the upside, in my opinion: even though the Trump administration has had a high rate of turnover among its executive-level staff, this means, among other things, that Trump has little or no reluctance about getting rid of people who are ineffective (or worse). That's way more than half the battle.
Interesting you mention Tillerson, while all eyes were on him, Pompeo was in North Korea making deals. You're right though, there have been several swampy creeps come through the administration but there's a lot we can't see, Trump plays his cards extremely close in.
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