This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 20 episode of “Velshi.”
Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he only hires the “best people.” The claim started as a line on the campaign trail during his first presidential run.
In June 2015, far before he took over the Republican Party, Trump told a crowd in South Carolina: “I know the best people. I know the best managers. I know the best dealmakers. I know people who will make us so strong. I know guys that are so good.”
Trump’s White House saw a higher turnover of staff than every president since at least Ronald Reagan.
It was a line that stuck. It fit within the outsider appeal that carried him to his 2016 win. The government suits were either corrupt or stupid and he would replace them with only the best.
But upon entering the White House, a different storyline emerged: The idea was that Trump’s Cabinet would resemble the boardrooms of his old reality show “The Apprentice.” But what we actually ended up with was closer to an episode of “Survivor.”
Trump’s White House saw a higher turnover of staff — Cabinet secretaries and senior ranking advisers — than every president since at least Ronald Reagan, according to Brookings Institution data that goes back to 1980. More cabinet officials left their posts under Trump than under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined.
And Trump isn’t one for an amicable breakup. Jeff Sessions was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump in 2016. In 2017, Sessions, who was serving as Trump’s first attorney general, recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump appeared to think the attorney general was his personal lawyer, not the country’s, and never forgave him. After a year of tweeting his dissatisfaction with Sessions, Trump finally fired him.
When Trump tapped Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state, he said in a statement that the former ExxonMobil chairman was “among the most accomplished business leaders and international deal makers in the world.” That was December 2016. Two years later, after firing Tillerson via Twitter, Trump said Tillerson, “didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.”
We know Trump will take every opportunity to bash someone he “fired like a dog,” but it’s not a one-way street. Some of the most vocal Trump critics right now are the same people who once saw him run the country up close.
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper — also fired by tweet in 2019 and 2020 respectively — have both called Trump unfit to serve.
And of course, Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, who refused to carry out his order to overturn the 2020 election and whose life was threatened on Jan. 6, now says he cannot in good conscience endorse his former running mate in 2024.
There were also the grifters. Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, lasted less than a year in the job after spending almost $400,000 of the government’s money on chartered flights. His interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, resigned in 2018 after federal investigations were launched into the secretary’s travel habits and conflicts of interest. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, quit when he became the subject of 13 different ethics investigations — but not before demanding an aide try to buy a used mattress for him from the Trump International Hotel.
At some point, Trump got sick of the lengthy appointment process for new Cabinet officials. In order to avoid Senate approval after every fire-by-tweet, Trump began appointing “acting secretaries” all over the government, who required no Senate confirmation and already carried with them an aura of replaceability. In a February 2019 interview with CBS News, Trump defended this system by telling Margaret Brennan that he likes “acting [roles] because I can move so quickly. It gives me more flexibility.” It’s worth noting that Project 2025, the conservative playbook for the next Trump administration, encourages making this tactic an explicit policy. In order to avoid Senate approval after every fire-by-tweet, Trump began appointing “acting secretaries.” Trump’s reliance on “acting” secretaries unraveled more after Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. As Trump scoured for ways to deny his loss, he was desperate for yes-men at every level of government. According to Washington Post reporting, in those final days, Trump turned to a die-hard named John McEntee to purge disloyal staffers. McEntee was then 30 years old and had already failed a security clearance at the White House in 2018. McEntee, who had no policy experience, was permitted to clean house. He would reportedly hand pink slips to officials, firing some and demanding that others refuse to communicate with Biden’s presidential transition team. McEntee ran the Presidential Personnel Office to Trump’s wishes, and in accordance with all of the suggestions in Project 2025: purge disloyals, remind everyone for whom they’re working, and reward obedience. He’s now a senior adviser for Project 2025, in charge of the presidential personnel database to pre-vet potential staffers for the next administration. So, when Trump tells — and shows you — how he’s going to run the government and whom he’s going to hire, believe him the first time.
Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting for “How the Wheels Came Off,” a special on the near collapse of the American auto industry. His work on disabled workers and Chicago’s red-light camera scandal in 2016 earned him two News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, adding to a nomination in 2010 for his terrorism coverage.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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