[ April 24, 2024 ]
Of course it’s good for the country, but don’t expect the disloyal media or the disloyal party to go along.
Donald Trump says purge of disloyal staffers is for the ‘good of the country’
By Dave Boyer, The Washington Times, February 25, 2020
President Trump carried out his campaign against his opponents in government on two fronts Tuesday, acknowledging that his new White House personnel director is systematically ferreting out disloyal administration officials and calling on two liberal Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves from cases involving him.
Story continues below advertisementThe president said Johnny McEntee, a trusted former aide who was rehired shortly after Mr. Trump’s impeachment acquittal in the Senate, is looking at various agencies to identify government employees who oppose him. High on the list are the Justice and State departments.
“I don’t think it’s a big problem. I don’t think it’s very many people,” Mr. Trump said. “We want to have people that are good for the country, that are loyal to our country.”
The president also targeted Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He said Justice Sotomayor recently tried to “shame” conservative justices into voting against the administration and that Justice Ginsburg “went wild” with criticism of him during the 2016 campaign.
“I just don’t know how they cannot recuse themselves from anything having to do with Trump,” the president said at a press conference in India, where he was wrapping up a two-day visit. He also tweeted that the two justices were unfair to him.
Critics call the president’s post-impeachment personnel moves a purge, but his allies say it is a housecleaning that should have started sooner.
“I think this is a great and refreshing change in strategy from the president’s team,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union. “It’s long overdue and, by the way, it’s consistent with the will of the American people, who have never given the president higher approval ratings than right now.”
Former Trump White House aide Sebastian Gorka called the hiring of Mr. McEntee “a clear sign to those around him in the White House and in the agencies of the U.S. government that the president is reasserting control over the government he was elected to head.”
Since the start of his presidency, Mr. Trump has railed against the “deep state” officials and entrenched bureaucrats who have at a minimum tried to block his agenda. At worst, he blames them for instigating the “witch hunt” investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and by House Democrats leading up to an impeachment inquiry last year.
In his comments Tuesday, the president singled out the “fake” anonymous government whistleblower who initiated the impeachment complaint against him, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a former National Security Council aide who testified against him in the impeachment inquiry.
“That was a disgraceful situation,” the president said.
The NSC has moved out Col. Vindman in the midst of a major reorganization; he has returned to a job at the Pentagon. The whistleblower is believed to be still working at the CIA after a temporary stint at the White House.
Among those who have been ousted or transferred in recent weeks is Jessie K. Liu, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia whose nomination for a Treasury Department post was withdrawn after renewed criticism of her handling of cases involving Mr. Mueller’s investigation.
John Rood, a Pentagon official who certified that Ukraine met anti-corruption criteria, was let go. Victoria Coates was transferred from her post at the NSC to the Energy Department amid speculation that she could have been “Anonymous,” an unidentified staffer who wrote a book and op-ed critical of the president. Ms. Coates and her boss denied the rumor.
Adding to the administration’s internal search for disloyal officials is a reported parallel effort organized by Ginni Thomas, wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Some have called for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the administration, but a Republican source said Mrs. Thomas “has a long history of Republican activism” apart from her status as the wife of a high court justice.
Longtime conservative figure Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said such an effort is needed.
“Every conservative I know wishes it happened three years ago,” he said in an interview. “This is way overdue, and I’m thrilled.”
He is a friend of Mrs. Thomas but said he doesn’t know whether she is leading the effort called “Groundswell,” but he believes she is well-suited for the role.
“Ginni’s got a huge following out there. She’s a very, very important conservative leader with great energy,” he said.
Mr. Schlapp, who dealt with similar personnel issues in the George W. Bush administration, said all Republican presidents encounter a predominantly liberal federal workforce in Washington, Maryland and Northern Virginia.
“The problem for Republican presidents is the civil service is populated with people who are 80% opposed to the president’s policies,” he said in an interview. “If they’re honorable people who keep their politics in check, it’s not a large issue, just a small issue.”
But, he added, “when they become radicalized and they get told by the national media that you’re saving America by joining ‘#resistance,’ you have a constitutional crisis on your hands, which is what we’ve had for the last 3½ years. When they become politicized as they have under President Trump, it’s a nightmare for that president. And it was a nightmare for President Bush over time,” Mr. Schlapp said.
He said he believes employees in the intelligence community, in particular, “felt even more muscular to do flagrantly felonious activities, assuming that their allies at the Justice Department would look the other way.”
“And I think there’s a recompense coming, and it’s been needing to happen for a long time,” Mr. Schlapp said.
Ms. Liu was a political appointee, but the White House apparently is also willing to confront civil service employees deemed problematic. Mr. Schlapp said of his experience in the Bush administration that “you do everything you can legally.”
“You look to reassign people. You work with the general counsel in the agency,” he said. “There has to be … transgressions by the civil service in the swamp, when they are literally opposing the president’s policies that the American people voted in. They’re not somehow above the law. They just have a sweetheart deal on making it nearly impossible to fire them.”
Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of carrying out a purge of enemies since he was acquitted in his impeachment trial this month. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Col. Vindman “was only the start of the ‘loyalty’ purge.”
“The rule of law can’t tolerate 4 more yrs of a president who thinks he’s above it,” she tweeted. “Our democracy can’t tolerate 4 more yrs of a president who thinks he can bulldoze through it.”
Critics primarily on the left have accused Mr. Trump of something more sinister. They say he is trying to clear out any opposition against illegal acts he is planning.
Mr. Schlapp called the suggestion “paranoid.”
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26 Comments
4 years ago
I WOULD LOVE TO WORK FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP AS A SPEECH WRITER, but so far his current Writer is doing a GREAT JOB!
Wanna bet these traitors that were fired, will sue Trump? THIS IS HOW INSANE THESE PEOPLE ARE.
4 years ago
I WOULD LOVE TO WORK FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP AS A SPEECH WRITER, but so far his current Writer is doing a GREAT JOB!
Wanna bet these traitors that were fired, will due Trump? THIS IS HOW INSANE THESE PEOPLE ARE.
4 years ago
4 years ago
4 years ago
I guess it’s okay for Hollyweird and fashion designers to be dissed if they endorse Trump. I have noticed, First Lady, Melania, hasn’t suffered from LIBERAL, Trump hating designers. She isn’t walking around naked or running out of stunning outfits to wear. She could still be a top model. We can be proud of her and her good taste in fashion.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
“her (Melania’s) good taste in fashion.” Mostly perhaps, but not when it comes to certain of her overcoats that look huge and ready for takeoff! ( an example of that was the one she wore on her and Trump’s recent state visit to the UK ) Overall, Melania is a classy lady who makes the homely and pathetic British Royal Family look like dowdy wannabes! Melania IS the real royalty!
4 years ago
Reply to
Don T
I know there were a few outfits… but 99% of what she choses to wear is just right. She wears it well too.
4 years ago
Reply to
Don T
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It depends on your tastes. I think Melania is an exquisite woman in fashion, beauty, and temperance. With all that hate and contempt around her about her Husband, I am not quite sure I could stand it without hitting someone, but that is just my personal disgusted feelings about never-trumpers, liberals, and politicians in general.
Yes, she certainly IS a very classy lady, 100 times better than Michelle Obama and First Ladies before her. Laura Bush was classy, but not like Melania.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
“her (Melania’s) good taste in fashion.” Mostly perhaps, but not when it comes to certain of her overcoats that look huge and ready for takeoff! ( an example of that was the one she wore on her and Trump’s recent state visit to the UK ) Overall, Melania is a classy lady who makes the homely and pathetic British Royal Family look like dowdy wannabes! Melania IS the real royalty!
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
We all can, should and are proud of our First Lady and our great President, one of the greatest Presidents of the US of A.
4 years ago
I guess it’s okay for Hollyweird and fashion designers to be dissed if they endorse Trump. I have noticed, First Lady, Melania, hasn’t suffered from LIBERAL, Trump hating designers. She isn’t walking around naked or running out of stunning outfits to wear. She could still be a top model. We can be proud of her and her good taste in fashion.
4 years ago
Best headline ever!
4 years ago
I’m in full agreement with the president except for one thing. When he said ”
I don’t think it’s very many people”the warning lights went off. I think these agencies and the white house need a deep cleaning. The corrupt people seem to be everywhere and they have to go. The sooner the better!
4 years ago
Reply to
anonQ
YES, I agree. I THINK IT GOES DEEPER THAN PRESIDENT TRUMP KNOWS!
It needs a complete OVERHAUL. Try hiring REAL AMERICANS OUT HERE, PRESIDENT TRUMP, WHO AREN’T POLITICIANS LIKE YOU. THEN, you will see a BIG CHANGE.
I am a devout follower of Christ, but I would have no problem telling a Politician OR anyone who spends all their time hating our President and/or AMERICA(NS), what I think of him, her or THEM and NOT BACKING DOWN. In fact, I would pray the angels of God to surround them and THEY WOULD FEEL THAT, so much so, they were shake in their boots. The Holy Spirit is EXTREMELY POWERFUL, especially within someone like me who walks softly, but carries a big HOLY SPIRIT STICK. 😉
4 years ago
Reply to
TomSJr
The book of Isiah as well as Ezekiel talk of what is happening right now. God says if we allow it to happen it will happen, and we have allowed it to happen!
4 years ago
Shoulda been done, already on day one. But better late than never 🙂
4 years ago
In today’s neurotic political environment you are either with Trump or against him, there is no in-between.
ID the disloyal on the payroll, hand them a sandwich and a road map and find the next culprit. Simple as that.
4 years ago
In today’s neurotic political environment you are either with Trump or against him, there is no in-between.
ID the disloyal on the payroll, hand them a sandwich and a road map and find the next culprit. Simple as that.
4 years ago
I always thought justice was supposed to be blind. Well, perhaps she is, but it turns out she is also clearly partisan. Good on Trump! Long may he reign!
4 years ago
Even after all the blind hatred our president still extends an olive branch. Bigger person than me.
4 years ago
as an American Citizen, a real one, the word I use is “FINALLY.”
4 years ago
Most Presidents clean house immediately. Clinton even fired the whole travel agency staff, a non-political agency.
Trump actually thought that he could get along with them and he was surprised when they showed a lack of cooperation a month or so into his administration. It is about time. Why would anyone be surprised he got rid of a staffer that testified AGAINST him in the trial?
4 years ago
Reply to
Roland
Former president obimbo, WELL BEFORE it was even inaugurated, sent letters demanding the resignations of ALL booshie appointed ambassadors.
4 years ago
Again it is past time for this to happen. The left has unlawfully disrupted this nation’s government and violated the Constitution. They must Pay!
4 years ago
Purge away my brother.
