https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...47dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.ec78cf20ce58
It’s a peculiar phenomenon: Trump bumbles along, his approval rating low but relatively constant, while those he touches are disgraced or ruined. Trump delights in destroying foes, but his indiscriminate destruction brings down friends just as easily.
This was true in Trump’s business dealings, as measured by a long trail of lawsuits, bankruptcies and business associates saying they were stiffed. Now we see a procession of castoffs from Trump’s political career — Tom Price, Sean Spicer, Stephen K. Bannon, Reince Priebus, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort — whose service to Trump ended in humiliation or worse. Many who stay become targets of presidential criticism (Rex Tillerson, H.R. McMaster) or wind up in ethical trouble (Steven Mnuchin, David Shulkin)
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Why? To start, Trump didn’t have his choice of first-tier talent. Most of those with governmental experience and policy credentials wanted nothing to do with Trump, who in any case disdained the party elites. So he wound up with White House official Omarosa Manigault, whose prior experience involved being a contestant on Trump’s reality show; and Hicks, who was a model and adviser on Ivanka Trump’s fashion line before making her political debut with the Trump campaign; and Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart News figure claimed by a Hungarian neo-Nazi group as a member; and poorly vetted figures such as Rob Porter (wife-beating allegations), Paul Manafort (indictment) or Rick Gates (guilty plea).
It’s a peculiar phenomenon: Trump bumbles along, his approval rating low but relatively constant, while those he touches are disgraced or ruined. Trump delights in destroying foes, but his indiscriminate destruction brings down friends just as easily.
This was true in Trump’s business dealings, as measured by a long trail of lawsuits, bankruptcies and business associates saying they were stiffed. Now we see a procession of castoffs from Trump’s political career — Tom Price, Sean Spicer, Stephen K. Bannon, Reince Priebus, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort — whose service to Trump ended in humiliation or worse. Many who stay become targets of presidential criticism (Rex Tillerson, H.R. McMaster) or wind up in ethical trouble (Steven Mnuchin, David Shulkin)
.
Why? To start, Trump didn’t have his choice of first-tier talent. Most of those with governmental experience and policy credentials wanted nothing to do with Trump, who in any case disdained the party elites. So he wound up with White House official Omarosa Manigault, whose prior experience involved being a contestant on Trump’s reality show; and Hicks, who was a model and adviser on Ivanka Trump’s fashion line before making her political debut with the Trump campaign; and Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart News figure claimed by a Hungarian neo-Nazi group as a member; and poorly vetted figures such as Rob Porter (wife-beating allegations), Paul Manafort (indictment) or Rick Gates (guilty plea).
