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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, July 29, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 029 ~ 21 of 67
As a candidate, and now as presi- dent, Trump has cycled through campaign chiefs and advisers but has remained easily distracted by his personal interests and only loosely tethered to any policy plans.
“Trump has spent a lot of his politi- cal capital on nothing but defending his own reputation,” Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said of Trump’s rst six months in of ce. “There is no sustained strategy. His attention seems to shift with whatever is lead- ing cable news at that moment.”
Staff shake-ups are a tried-and-true way for struggling presidents to signal that they are ready to shift course.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton el- evated budget director Leon Panetta to chief of staff with a mandate to bring more discipline to a loosely organized White House. President GeorgeW.Bushmadethesamemove withJoshBoltenin2006astheBush presidency buckled under criticism of hishandlingoftheIraqwarandthe federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Rarely,however,dopresidentsface as much turmoil as quickly as Trump has.
In this May 17, 2017, le photo, President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listen to the national anthem during commencement exercises at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Six months into presidency, Trump is saddled with a stalled agenda,aWestWingthatresemblesaviper’snest,acloud ofinvestigationsandaRepublicanPartythatisstarting to break away. Against that daunting backdrop, Trump movedJuly28tooverhaulhisseniorteam,installingKelly asWhiteHousechiefofstaff.Thehard-nosed,retiredgen- eral replaces Reince Priebus, a Republican operative who wasskepticalofTrump’selectoralprospectslastyear.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
His Friday afternoon tweet announc-
ing Kelly’s hiring capped a tumultuous week:
—his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, spewed vulgarities in public at Priebus.
—Trump drew blunt criticism from GOP lawmakers over his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions for withdrawing from the federal investigation into Russian campaign interference.
—Senate Republicans’ efforts to pass legislation that would have overhauled the nation’s health care law collapsed.
Some Trump allies tried to pin the blame for the health debacle on Priebus. The former Republican National Committee chairman had sold himself to Trump as a well-connected Washington operator who could help round up votes on Capitol Hill. He encouraged Trump to press forward with a health care overhaul early in his presidency.
But as Republicans sorted through the rubble of their health care failure, it was Trump, not his chief of staff, who was the target of criticism.
“One of the failures was the president never laid out a plan or his core principles and never sold them to the American people,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. He said Trump “outsourced the whole issue to Congress.”
Indeed, Trump’s relatively rare public appeals for the passage of health legislation suggested he was more interested in a political win than in the details of policy. A former Democrat who does not adhere to