Ground Game: Trump and the US debt, the Supreme Court's emergency docket, Leonard Leo and the president
This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on June 2. You can subscribe at any time at apnews.com/newsletters.
This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on June 2. You can subscribe at any time at apnews.com/newsletters.
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The many hats of Marco Rubio
Max Stier is the president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, a bipartisan organization focused on building a better government and a stronger democracy. Since February, Marco Rubio has traveled to several countries, helped to mediate peace talks between Ukraine and Russia (and India and Pakistan), and met with the foreign minister of Syria's new regime. Presumably, he's balanced these diplomatic missions with his normal management duties as secretary of the State Department, where he oversees tens of thousands of employees. But that's just Rubio's day job. President Donald Trump also has named Rubio as his national security adviser with the responsibility of directing the National Security Council whose staff has been upended; as acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development that he is helping to dismantle; and as acting archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration. Rubio's four official jobs titles are not just burdensome — they are incongruent with one another. For starters, the role of national security adviser is akin to being an air traffic controller; this person is tasked with ensuring that all national security interests and perspectives are fairly represented for presidential decision-making. It's hard to fathom how Rubio can reconcile his responsibilities at the State Department and the NSC, as leading both essentially requires him to act as player and referee at the same time. There is also no telling what to expect from his role at USAID, where there is a desperate need for expert leadership to redress the carnage from the agency's likely unlawful destruction. And, saving the strangest for last, running the National Archives plainly has no connection whatsoever to Rubio's overwhelming foreign policy duties. Thankfully, he is not claiming multiple salaries for the job titles. Rubio is not the only member of Trump's team that the president has forced to wear multiple ill-fitting, disparate hats: The secretary's balancing act is but one example of the president's unprecedented and irresponsible pattern of assigning his political appointees to multiple government roles. For Trump, loyalty is preeminent while competence and character seem irrelevant. Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative who has his hands full these days negotiating Trump's tariffs with foreign nations, is also serving as the temporary head of the Office of Government Ethics, which is responsible for overseeing ethics compliance across the government by senior officials like himself. Greer is also moonlighting as acting head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistleblowers against retaliation and enforces the law banning federal employees from certain types of political activity. This is truly looking to the fox to guard the henhouse. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll has been named acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a far cry from his primary duties, while Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought is also the current acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency he is turning on its head to perform the opposite functions for which it was created. Richard Grenell is the president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — where Trump has fired board members appointed by former president Joe Biden — and is also serving as special missions envoy, a position that requires frequent travel. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of Trump's former criminal attorneys, has been named acting librarian of Congress (though it's unclear if he has started), a job totally disconnected from his Justice Department responsibilities — and not even in the executive branch. This appointment has appropriately raised concerns in Congress of a violation of the separation of powers, including from some Republican lawmakers. Trump's chaotic jack-of-all-trades approach to governance reflects his contempt for the federal agencies and the sound stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Federal employees deserve leaders, even on an acting or temporary basis, who can fully focus on the mission of their organizations, and the public equally deserves government entities that are responsive and effective. Beyond the stated chaos, Trump is also undermining the requirement of Senate confirmation with his rapid firing of top-level positions. Sure, the Senate confirmation process is slow and dysfunctional and often requires the need for acting officials until permanent appointees are approved. But Trump is compounding the Senate's backlog and shortchanging the American people by placing individuals in multiple roles. A White House spokesman recently defended the administration, saying the president has 'built a team of extremely qualified people that can be dual-hatted and get the job done.' An acclamation this full-throated is at best premature. Trump has deputized his team like a baseball coach asking his player to be at first base and in right field simultaneously — an impossible task. Senior government jobs are demanding and difficult, and even if the individuals in question are good at their primary assignments, they realistically can't handle multiple high-level responsibilities. The president should nominate individuals who can devote themselves full time to these critical jobs and avoid other roles. And while unlikely in the current political climate, Congress should hold oversight hearings to examine how the lack of full-time leadership is affecting these organizations. The bottom line, though, is that the president has placed loyalty to himself over the work and management of agencies that serve important needs of the American public. This will inevitably lead to missteps, slow decision-making, conflicts of interest and diminished services.
