President Trump told us he’d hire the best people. He didn’t mention that he’d be unable to fire them.
The president is experiencing a bout of insubordination from his top officials the likes of which we haven’t seen in the modern era. It’s not unusual to have powerful officials at war among themselves, or in the presidential doghouse. It’s downright bizarre to have them publicly undercut the president, without fear of consequence.
The new measure of power in Washington is how far you can go in criticizing the president you serve. The hangers-on and junior players must do it furtively and anonymously. Only a principal like Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson or James Mattis can do it out in the open and get away with it.
First, it was chief economic adviser Cohn saying in an interview that the administration — i.e., Trump — must do a better job denouncing hate groups. Then, it was Secretary of State Tillerson suggesting in a stunning interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News that the rest of the government speaks for American values, but not necessarily the president. Finally, Secretary of Defense
Mattis contradicted without a moment’s hesitation a Trump tweet saying we’re done talking with North Korea.
In a more normal time, in a more normal administration, any of these would be a firing offense (although, in Mattis’ defense, he more accurately stated official US policy than the president did). Tillerson, in particular, should’ve been told before he was off the set of Fox News Sunday that he was only going to be allowed to return to the seventh floor of the State Department to clean out his desk.
That this hasn’t happened is an advertisement of Trump’s precarious standing, broadcast by officials he himself selected for positions of significant power and prestige.
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