The President Trump Reality Show debuted a new character this week. Anthony Scaramucci, a loud, flashy, fast-talking, vulgar financier, who seems almost a mini-me caricature of President Trump, stole the show, replacing the hapless, whiney Sean Spicer as White House communications director. Scaramucci’s expletive-filled conversation with a reporter, Ryan Lizza, at The New Yorker has a rather long title: Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon.
Scaramucci appears to be even more of a loose cannon than President Trump, if that is possible.
I doubt Scaramucci will remain in the White House very long, not because he’s even more clueless about our constitutional system of government than his boss, but because Scaramucci’s flamboyant personality so completely dominated the White House stage this week, that he cast President Trump into the background. Donald J. Trump will never tolerate, for very long, being upstaged by an underling.
In other news, chaos reigned supreme with President Trump announcing a major policy change in the U.S. Armed Forces, to ban transgender people to serve in the U.S. military. President Trump announced this policy change in a tweet, without any formal policy change in writing or any consultation with the Secretary of Defense or JCS about the roll-out of this policy change. The generals were caught off-guard.
Whether you agree or disagree with the ban on transgendered people serving in the military, the larger issue is President Trump’s use of Twitter, as his unfiltered means to talk directly to the American people, created unnecessary chaos in the U.S. military. Trump’s tweet left the Pentagon leadership totally defenseless, not only defending this policy change, but even in explaining it to the troops. Trump’s rash tweet, with no consultation with his staff and no policy in writing yet, assures that this, just like all his other policy initiatives, will end up mired in controversy. No one at the Pentagon could explain the new policy, because President Trump didn’t bother to have a policy in writing before announcing it. He governs by whims issued via his personal Twitter account. He makes no distinction using his personal Twitter account for official government business.
“Loose cannon” doesn’t even begin to describe the gravity of having a reckless, commander-in-chief, who uses his personal Twitter to announce military policy changes, without even talking to the military leadership.
There is no staff shake-up that will establish order in this White House.
Just more lurching toward banana republic status on the world stage as Trump governs from one tweet to the next.
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