General Kelly was tasked with sorting out the dysfunctional White House. He appears, with the sacking of Sebastian Gorka, to have completed the main phase. Some will ring their hands in anxiety and wonder if the Trump project is on the rocks. Regular readers will know that this blog judges Trump on his actions. Sometimes he is right, sometimes wrong, but he is the President of the United States and it is in none of our interests if he cannot govern, whatever our politics.
The problem in the early months has been that Trump was not a politician, which is why he was elected, but neither were most of his early appointments. If that were all, they would have quickly learned on the job, but unfortunately in many cases, particularly Bannen and Gorka, they were also ideologues. And the problem with ideologues is that they put ideology first and deliverability second. That leads to chaos. That is because democratic government is about compromise.
It is about governing for those who support you as well as those who do not. It is about building consensus among competing interests and egos. Moreover this is especially the case with the US Federal system which is designed to do nothing if consensus cannot be built, unless there is a substantial majority uniting both the legislature and the executive on a course of action. Theoretically the Republicans control all three organs of government, but in practice the Republican party is composed of factions who cannot agree. In the country Trump has a pretty solid base around 40% of voters, but he won the electoral college while losing the popular vote.
So for Trump to achieve a solid record sufficient to inspire his base and win over uncommitted voters, he has to deliver beyond the scope of Executive Orders, useful tool of presidential government although they are undoubtedly are. He has to get through Congress legislation to enable tax cuts for business, infrastructure renewal and a workable healthcare plan. He also has to deal with North Korea, IS, Afghanistan, Fair Trade, re-patriation of jobs and immigration.
Whether this is your agenda is irrelevant to this post. It is Trump’s agenda and the one upon which he was elected. He has to score well on all these issues and he can only do that with a White House which has delivery skills entirely absent from his original line up. If you cut through the media feeding frenzy over every word the free-wheeling Trump utters, to try and detect a different meaning to what he said on the same issue an hour ago, there are already signs of steadier hands at the wheels of state in the Executive Mansion.