Day 189: The White House is Incredibly Dysfunctional

Little communication, backstabbing and in-fighting plague Trump and team.

It’s been apparent for months that nobody in the White House really has any clue what they’re doing. Basic tasks— from rushed, sloppy planning of the annual Easter Egg Roll to neglecting to book hotel rooms for the G-20 summit — have been a mess. Of course, that typically indicates the more important issues are similarly a disaster. Rather than a cohesive team aimed at a singular objective, everyone just seems to be doing their own thing with no regard for how it affects anything else.

Take, for example, Donald Trump’s sudden announcement that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the military. The move was done with apparently zero communication between Trump and the people who are responsible for military operations.

If you want to make decisions that are going to impact thousands of troops and various operations, perhaps it’s best to give the Department of Defense a heads-up instead of just blasting tweets of the new policy.

Many Republicans spoke out forcefully against the ban, underscoring the political misstep that Trump and his team made.

Then, in an apparent effort to continue cozying up to the religious right, Trump tweeted his thoughts on religion in the U.S.

An elected government official saying “In America … we worship God” violates the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The Founding Fathers thought it so important a principle, that it goes before freedom of speech, assembly and the press.

While the Constitution’s words are about Congress establishing laws, courts have expanded the scope of their review into these issues into employment rules, actions and even religious displays by governments.

While upholding secular and general uses of the word “God,” courts have continuously stricken down overt religious uses of the word, associated symbols and teachings. For instance, displaying of the Ten Commandments in courthouses has been deemed unconstitutional, as has the required teaching of creationism in public schools.

Trump words are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. In the U.S. citizens have the right to worship or not worship whatever they want.

Perhaps Trump should remember the words of John Adams: “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Finally, the in-fighting among Trump’s team has reached unprecedented levels, as new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci sent a cryptic tweet:

First of all, a communications director who thinks, “In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony.” is a sentence should be fired on the spot.

Second, he’s pretty clearly calling for Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to be investigated for leaking the information. The rumors out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are that Scaramucci is already angling for Priebus’ job, less than a week into his own. There really aren’t any other ways the read “the Mooch”’s evening tweet, but as if there was any doubt, reporters were ready to weigh in.

Scaramucci later deleted the tweet and tried to offer a weak excuse for his tweet being misconstrued by the media.

Again, this is the White House communications director. He’s either truly awful at conveying his real message — not ideal considering his role — or he’s publicly trying to oust the Chief of Staff. Or both. That’s it. Those are the options.

The entire White House is a mess.

Everyone is out for themselves, an attitude that starts at the top and works its way down.

189 days in, 1273 to go

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