Call it Trump’s Sunday Night Massacre. Lashing out at his own border security team, Donald Trump forced Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign then followed that up by threatening to fire her top aides, while he pulled his top Immigration and Customs Enforcement pick and sacked the head of the Secret Service.
The radical DHS purge sent a clear signal that Trump thinks the department, which has been tasked with trying to manage his utterly bizarre border agenda, has failed. The move also comes as the country is supposedly dealing with a "national emergency" at its southern border, but it's a mirage-like crisis that only Trump can see.
Of course, Trump's beloved brand of personnel chaos isn't limited to DHS. It's everywhere within his administration. It's by design and it's not just Trump being eccentric: It's Trump trying to undercut pillars of democracy, such as accountability within a strong, independent government.
All told, it certainly looks like a slow, deliberate march toward authoritarianism, with Trump trying to seize more power. He does that by constantly firing top officials, putting in "acting" replacements, and letting everyone (except his family members) know they serve to please him, period. But the "A" word—authoritarianism—is frowned upon inside most newsrooms busy covering Trump, along with the "R" word (racist) and the "L" word (liar). It's all part of a sad normalization that's been instituted, where most of the Beltway press is willing to describe Trump's outlandish behavior as unusual—but not as dangerous, or a threat to our democracy.
That's the etiquette line the press just doesn't want to cross. Because once you acknowledge the president of the United States represents an active threat to our democracy, which Trump clearly does, you can't go back to normal. You can't pretend that isn't the biggest news story every day for the rest of the Trump presidency.
So for the most part, the DHS purge was treated narrowly as just that: a purge of one particular agency. Mostly missing was the wider media perspective that forcefully focused on how Trump is purposefully gutting department leaderships across the federal government simply because he can, and simply because that means more power for him.
When the press does address this defining and dangerous Trumpian trait, it's often to portray the nonstop firings and resignations as a tic, or part of Trump's mercurial management style. But it's not a tic. It's not about his "whack-a-mole" approach, or him being a "change agent." He's gutting the federal government and specifically turning his administration into an increasingly dysfunctional entity. It's all by design. Yet journalists keep scratching their heads, wondering why Trump can't figure this staffing stuff out.
Hint: He doesn't want to.
The bottom line is Trump shows absolutely no concern that the press will hold him accountable for his brazen and radical behavior. And can you blame Trump for his purge arrogance? He's currently overseeing the cover-up of the Mueller report as the somnambulant Beltway press remains mostly quiet. Attorney General William Barr displayed Trump's same complete lack of concern about helping to construct a cover-up of the Mueller report while he testified before Congress on Tuesday. Both appear utterly confident they will succeed in keeping important information hidden from the public and the press, just like the administration has effectively canceled White House press briefings. Again and again, the Trump White House easily rolls the media.
The frightening reality is that Trump remains completely unencumbered by a traditionally powerful Washington force: the power of the press and its influence to hold officials accountable. Nervous about allegations of "liberal media bias" and professing to be suffering from so-called scandal fatigue, the press has consciously or unconsciously signaled to Trump that he's free to do as he pleases, even as he aims to hollow out the federal government.
Often overlooked or downplayed during the last two years is the fact that Trump has been dismantling the government in a deliberate push to make it as weak as possible, so that he alone has ultimate control. All across the federal government, countless key posts remain purposefully vacant as top officials are saddled with "acting" titles, just so they know they might be fired at a whim by Trump.
Here's a running tally on who has left or been fired, to date:
"Currently 66% of President Trump’s “A-Team” have departed or been promoted," notes Kathryn Dunn Tenpas at the Brookings Institute. "The consequences of such turnover are many, and fundamentally impede the president’s ability to fulfill his campaign promises." That's certainly true.
But another key consequence is Trump making sure the government doesn't function as it's supposed to, ensuring the government isn't healthy and running smoothly. And in that vacuum of dysfunction, he's able to exert more dominance and power. That's why the White House doesn't seem to be interested in filling key vacancies. The Partnership for Public Service found that 140 Senate-confirmed positions have no nominee, even though Trump has been in office for 27 months.
All of this takes a huge toll on the government, and on the country's wellness:
A quick update on our national security leadership: Defense Secretary: Vacant.DHS Secretary: Vacant.UN Ambassador: Vacant.FEMA Director: Vacant.Secret Service Director: Vacant.ICE Director: Vacant.DHS Deputy: Vacant. President: Present, but unaccounted for.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 9, 2019
A quick update on our national security leadership: Defense Secretary: Vacant.DHS Secretary: Vacant.UN Ambassador: Vacant.FEMA Director: Vacant.Secret Service Director: Vacant.ICE Director: Vacant.DHS Deputy: Vacant. President: Present, but unaccounted for.
After two years in office, it’s obvious Trump is completely unconcerned with the press ever holding him accountable.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
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