How can UK prime minister transition happen in less than a week when US presidential transition have to begin planning almost a year in advance?
Our system was designed at a time when a President elect had a life he had to get in order, and probably a business he had to see to. And then he’d have to travel by horse from wherever he lived to Washington, DC to take on the sacrifice he had just made by doing his patriotic duty for his country.The idea of a professional politician with nothing else to do but be President was unimaginable.We now use the time between Election Day and Inauguration Day to get the President Elect up to speed on the things they need to know to do the job. Defense posture and security posture for many, many countries. How briefings work. Rules of parliamentary procedure. Who’s who in Congress. Where the bathrooms in the West Wing of the White House are. Things like that.Plus hiring staff, choosing cabinet members, picking decorations for various rooms from national museums, etc…And we do the sitting President the courtesy of giving him a couple of months to move out of the White House.I guess my question is whether Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is such an easy job that someone can walk in and start doing it on one day’s notice? And do you really evict whoever had that job before immediately?
How significant is Steve Bannon's removal from the National Security Council? Is this just a general dismantling of the NSC, or a reflection of Bannon‘s unsuitability for the job?
I will take an optimistic tack here. It's starting to look pretty significant. This may be a sign of pragmatism from President Trump.First, a word about President Trump's business career. He was wont to front until the last minute. Things were awesome until they collapsed or until he dropped the deal. An employee was awesome until h fired them; then they were terrible. Perhaps Mr. Trump's second greatest success as a businessmen was knowing when the end was near and getting out with a personal profit.Several recent staffing changes fit this pattern:President Trump said Gen. Mike Flynn was awesome as National Security Advisor -- until weeks after Flynn was fired. Currently, Flynn is reported to be seeking an immunity deal with both Congressional investigators and the Justice Dept. One "leaked" account from a White House aide suggests that Bannon was attending the NSC only to ensure Flynn did not get out of hand. Go figure.President Trump has already shuffled his White House Staff. Deputy Chief of Staff left the White House to help run one of the pro-Trump outside advocacy groups. See Trump reassigns White House deputy chief of staff to outside group. While Walsh will make a lot more money and face fewer headaches, she will enjoy less access and power.Jared Kushner's new portfolio may be a hidden demotion. Trump will never publicly admit that his family is less than perfect. His new innovation portfolio and his diplomatic missions lie mostly outside of traditional White House roles. In the corporate world, this would be like giving a VP lots of little projects to keep them away from the critical decisions.What does this mean for Steve Bannon? President Trump is realizing that he will take the blame for any military mis-adventures. He is beginning to learn that what we want is very different from what we have. Trump is leaving more of the details of military tactics -- as opposed to high strategy -- to the professionals. He also is becoming aware that he is better off having his intelligence team -- whom he has appointed -- in the room. At the minimum he can deflect blame by showing he is using the best available information and following standard practice.Bottom line: President Trump has a steep learning curve but may be learning something.Thanks for the A2A, Channe
Jeff Sessions just resigned at the request of the President. Is he the worst hire Donald Trump made in his White House so far?
Yes and No.Jeff Session’s decision to recuse himself from Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign was entirely justified.Jeff Session’s decision to recuse himself from Mueller’s investigation when Mueller went Bat SDHit Crazy and started investigating every human being Donald Trump ever met in his entire life and started indicting people and companies that don’t even exist, who are supposedly located in hostile foreign lands, that can never be brought to trial. Is inexcusable.Maybe Sessions didn’t know how involved Mueller and Rosenstein were with the Russia/Clinton Uranium deal.Clearly Sessions didn’t know how the warrants to spy on the Trump campaign were obtained. (Leak a rumor to the press, then take the article written in the press to a judge and demand a warrant….)Just watching the laughable court case that’s going on with Concord Management… Where Mueller is being made a total fool of - on a daily basis.Should have been enough to trigger a real Attorney General to step and ask “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?”In many ways Sessions decision to allow this farce to go on for 2 years without producing a shred of evidence that Donald Trump did anything wrong is going to lend great credibility to Trump no matter how this issue is finally resolved.So while Sessions was a terrible Attorney General, his actions may end up greatly benefiting Donald Trump.