One of President Donald Trump’s trademark management techniques is pitting his own higher-ups against one another, forcing them to become little more than glorified “yes men” in order to gain Trump’s favor and the ability to influence him. That may have played out well in a corporate setting, but it is causing some issues with Trump’s cabinet members and White House Staff.
Politico reports that Trump’s favored cabinet members are having to parse out huge sections of their daily work in order to travel to meet face to face with the president.
For example, CIA Director Mike Pompeo loses three hours daily in order to commute to and from the White House and meet with Trump.
The reason Trump focuses on a select few cabinet heads is because of his deep distrust for Washington insiders and career politicians. After all, this was the man behind “Drain the swamp.”
Politico reports that other trusted members of the Trump inner circle are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Defense Secretary James Mattis, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
One reason these face to face meetings are important is because team Trump has been so slow to hire undersecretaries in various government agencies, so the only people available to brief the president are these powerful individuals.
That also means the agencies are less capable to run unimpeded when the person in charge has to curry favor with the president for three hours a day.
One Trump adviser told Politico:
“Who gets to sit in meetings is highly competitive. People want to be in those meetings, because information is power.”
This differs significantly from Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama. Obama felt every minute spent away from their agencies meant they were not moving forward with an agenda. He also made an effort to speak with everyone on a regular basis, as Obama’s former Cabinet Secretary told Politico:
“Obama was very clear in directing us to make sure that he stayed in touch with all of his Cabinet on a regular basis. … We were very prudent about using their time. President Obama’s view was certainly that time they spent away from the agencies or with the president would be time that could conceivably distract from what they were trying to get accomplished.”
One official even referred to Trump’s White House as a “dog-and-pony show.” For some idea of how our president is just playing at being the most respectable person in the room, check out his cabinet meeting. Each attendee took turns around the table just to compliment him (after the jump):
Featured Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0.
