...
Meanwhile, Trump hasn't submitted any new executive branch nominations since Feb. 8, and only one since Feb. 1. During that stretch, the original Labor nominee and nominees for secretaries of the Army and Navy have withdrawn. It appears the nominee for deputy secretary of Commerce is
likely on his way out as well. If so, that will leave only Homeland Security and Justice with deputy nominees, apparently in large part because of
factionalism within the administration, but perhaps also because Trump and his senior White House staff don't really understand how the government works.
Indeed, Trump has
hinted, and others have
speculated, that he might not want to fill many positions at all because he doesn't want the executive branch to do their jobs. As David Lewis explains in an excellent piece at the Monkey Cage, he would be
foolish indeed to do so. Without political appointees, the various departments and agencies won't shut down; they'll just do what the permanent bureaucracy wants to do, regardless of presidential intentions.
So what are we to make of Trump's complaint? All presidents spin, but Trump's willingness to make points entirely separate from reality, even with little or nothing at stake, is highly unusual. Perhaps Trump doesn't even realize what's going on in this own administration. Perhaps he just saw a stray (false) comment on whatever cable news network show he tuned in to. Perhaps it really is an attempt to distract people from the damaging Russia stories reported this week.
Whatever the thinking (if any), it's really poor strategy. It's one thing to exaggerate, especially on the campaign trail. But presidents should care about their professional reputations, including whether the people who work with them -- members of congress, people in the executive branch, the media, party leaders, and more -- take what they say seriously. Every time they tell a whopper, that makes anything they say in the future that much less trustworthy and that much more likely to be ignored. And that's another step on the road to an incredibly weak presidency.
