Immediately after Donald Trump’s inauguration, some observers believed he would try to hollow out the government. One of his closest advisors, Steve Bannon, even publicly celebrated Trump’s election as the first step in the destruction of the “deep state.” After Trump fired Bannon for criticizing Trump to a gossip columnist, even the pundits who had raised the question of whether Trump would try to undermine the federal bureaucracy turned their attention to other issues.
Now, after Trump has removed the top leadership of several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we are again focusing on Trump’s hollowing out of the federal government. While Trump’s first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was blamed for failing to fully staff the State Department, his successor, Mike Pompeo, has not reversed the trend. Pompeo has not filled key positions, including ambassadorships to several Middle East countries.
Pundits generally view Trump’s recent purge of DHS leadership as the most concerning of the key leadership vacancies across the government. These pundits believe Trump purged the DHS leadership because he was unhappy about their inability to stop asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S. Nonetheless, the impact of the DHS vacancies will be, among other things, to undermine the ability of the department to terrorist threats, protect the President, his family, and other high officials, and respond to natural disasters.
Trump is filling the top leadership positions in the State Department, DHS, and other federal agencies with acting appointees. These acting appointees are often not confirmed by the Senate and thus not fully vetted for top positions. As a result, Trump is seriously weakening the management of these federal agencies. Acting appointees are trusted less by other agency personnel because their tenure will be short-term. (The Federal Vacancies Act allows acting appointees to serve for no longer than 210 days.) And acting appointees are themselves more unwilling to make important decisions.
Hollowed out federal agencies will not snap back once Trump is out of office. It will take time and the expertise of the next administration to repair the government. It is unlikely that this country can take another four years of Trump.
The New York Times. Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, Nicholas Fandos and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Trump Purge Set to Force Out More Top Homeland Security Officials
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/us/politics/randolph-alles-secret-service.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/us/politics/randolph-alles-secret-service.html
The New York Times. On Politics: Trump's Purge of Homeland Security
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/trumps-homeland-security.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/trumps-homeland-security.html
