99% of the FedGov works in the Executive Branch. Trump was in charge of the Executive Branch but because he had such a shallow understanding of what his authority was and an absolute inability to communicate effectively - past the media as it were (as Reagan could) - he couldn’t accomplish lasting change. That is ALL on Trump.
You don’t get it on this one. The executive branch mostly just ignored President Trump when not outright obstructing him.
I talked to one government contractor who flat out admitted his team just QUIT WORKING once Covid hit.
Trump was mostly a figurehead as POTUS. I wish it was different but it is what it is.
They ignored him because they knew he would never inspect what he expected.
Trump ordered a complete withdraw from Syria in November of 2019. On Election Day 2020, the DoD had MORE service members in Syria than they had when Trump issued the order to withdraw.
How did that happen? Well, I’m told by people in the Pentagon that Trump never actually issued any order Syria. Instead, he just talked about it, proclaiming on Twitter that he ‘ordered’ the Secretary of Defense to withdraw troops. Did he? Who really knows. But, what didn’t happen is that was never put it into writing and transmitted to the DoD. So, they simply didn’t pay attention to what they read on twitter.
Because Trump had never worked in government, he simply didn’t understand how government worked. Manage the bureaucracy takes more than proclamations made in interview, news conference or on social media. It takes the considered execution of the bureaucratic regulations and - here’s the tough one for Trump - it takes follow-up. If you tell a government worker to do a thing, then you give them a deadline and then inspect their work. Trump never did and here we are.