The White House Is a Mess

Accused of misleading officials about possibly illegal pre-inaugural dealings with the Russians, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned just hours after White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said President Donald Trump had "full confidence" in him.Days earlier, Conway ran afoul of ethics rules for publicly promoting Ivanka Trump's clothing line. Press Secretary Sean Spicer struggles daily to reconcile Trump's statements with the truth, and a presidential pal says the chief of staff is "in over his head."If that were not enough, the president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, told senators it was "disheartening" and "demoralizing" when Trump denounced the "so-called judge" who ruled against his hurriedly issued, insufficiently vetted order halting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.By all accounts, Trump's nascent White House is a mess. The two main reasons: the president's often ill-considered, unverifiable comments. And the fact he created an organizational nightmare.The first problem may be unique and insoluble. Trump's propensity to tweet and make factually wrong, politically dubious statements reflects continuing resistance to the differences between campaigning and governing.But his organizational problems are neither unique nor insoluble. They require the recognition that, in organizing his White House, Trump made two basic errors that have hobbled other new presidents.First, the inexperienced president-elect put an inexperienced chief of staff in charge of an inexperienced staff. Second, he gave multiple aides direct access, ensuring no single person has sufficient authority to exert discipline over the staff and its activities.The result: contradictory comments on major issues and damaging high profile missteps. Even before published reports that Flynn's conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin may have broken the law against private citizens dealing with foreign governments -- and lied about it to other top officials -- the Justice Department apparently warned the White House he might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.But officials did nothing until the story surfaced publicly Monday in The Washington Post. An hour after Conway professed Trump's continuing confidence in him, Spicer said the president was still evaluating the situation. Six hours later, Flynn was out.That's just the tip of the iceberg. Trump's misstatements and contradictions about his positions and intentions are complicating efforts by congressional Republicans to write complex tax reform and Obamacare revision legislation. And the Flynn affair deepens suspicions about the darkest cloud over the administration: the nature of Trump's relationship with Putin, in the campaign and since.The new president laid the basis for subsequent problems the day he named Steve Bannon, the former head of a conservative web site, as his chief strategist and senior counselor, and Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, as chief of staff.In giving his two top aides equal status, Trump seemed to echo former President Ronald Reagan's simultaneous choice of longtime adviser Edwin Meese as his counselor, in charge of policy, and James Baker as chief of staff, operating the White House day-to-day.But Baker, a Commerce Department official before becoming a key figure in two presidential campaigns, quickly asserted his primacy over Meese, thanks to his greater efficiency, excellent staff hires and the tacit support of Michael Deaver, the No. 3 aide, and Reagan's wife Nancy. As a result, Reagan's staff operated smoothly.Priebus has failed to match that, prompting presidential pal Chris Ruddy to say he is "in over his head." And Trump compounded matters by giving other top advisers direct access, notably Conway, another neophyte who repeatedly touts her closeness to Trump; Flynn; and Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, perhaps the most powerful adviser of all.Ironically, the most direct parallels are with two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.Carter, the last president to start with no chief of staff, gave multiple aides access. It took two and one-half years before he gave longtime right-hand adviser, Hamilton Jordan, the title. Clinton was the most recent president whose chief of staff had minimal governmental experience. Mack McLarty, a genial fellow Arkansan, lasted 17 months until experienced Washington hand Leon Panetta replaced him.Insider accounts indicate repeated high-level jockeying. Trump's hard-line actions suggest Bannon's dominance, abetted by policy chief Stephen Miller. But Kushner was apparently crucial in Flynn's ouster, and Conway is bolstering her position by expanding her staff.This would matter less with a president knowledgeable on both policy details and governmental operations. It even embarrassed the most experienced person in Trump's White House, Vice President Mike Pence, who repeated misinformation from Flynn in television interviews.Keeping Trump from being Trump may be difficult. But presidents enjoy their peak influence at the outset, and failure to correct the organizational dysfunction could hamper his ability to achieve his ambitious goals.Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News and a frequent columnist. Email:carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com  Continue reading...

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