Replies

If you want something done that actually doable and effective, this is where you start - The Plum Book.

This is the “Bible” for the top-drawer presidential appointments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Book

This a book that lists positions in the United States government that are subject to political appointment. It lists around 9,000 federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment nationwide.

These appointments are how you directly control and shape the policy of the federal bureaucracy without time consuming legislation or blocking federal court actions like wholesale firings would entail. All Constitutional and well established by past use. Historically Republicans are terrible at exploiting this, Rats are not!

To get this to work you need to all extent possible avoid legislation and opportunities for legal challenge in the federal courts. Also, you need a Plan B ready to go for both if they occur!

Looking back at the then incoming 2016 Trump administration, they seemed to have been totally unprepared for this. As a minimum they clearly had the Republican habit of not quickly taking advantage of the Plum Book! Additionally, I think Trump naively thought he was dealing with “professionals”. He wasn’t! He left US Attorneys in place. For example, I remember there was some US attorney (Indian name!) in New York he was negotiating with. Waste of time! Rat administrations fire these guys by the time oath office is complete!. He left Agency heads and their deputies etc. in place far far too long (They all should have been fired and escorted out on Day 1!). Remember his dinners with Comey, etc. Trump had way way too much confidence in his “charm”, he thought could win them over with it! Sometimes things are not “a deal” to be crafted! Admiral Rogers who briefed Trump on the “collection” against Trump Tower should have been made DNI (or even DCIA) immediately. I never understood why he was not brought into the administration proper. His most devastatingly bad pick was the AG - Sessions. It set Trump up deliberately or not for all the mess that followed. In fact, Session’s incompetence or malfeasance was the crack in the wall that almost brought it all down.