Trump Cleaning House at HSD: Continuing His Grand Scheme and Quest As One-Man Show

Pumped and Ready to Change Structure of Government

(One agency at a time via Trump rules)

The resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen at HSD means that another cabinet officer who reports directly to President Trump will have the word “acting” next to the official title at a major department of government. 

Interim (“acting”) secretaries are also in place at: (1) DOD, (2) Interior, (3) OMB, (4) SBA, (5) at the UN, and (6) as Trump’s Chief of Staff.

Recall that Trump said this to reporters in January: “I like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great cabinet.”

(The impact of this now rather routine approach to governing that Trump either does not seem to grasp or care much about in his quest, as I’ve said for a very a long time, his quest to be a “one-man” show is very disconcerting thus):

(1) There are concerns about having men and women in such high-level jobs without having been subjected to Senate confirmation for those posts.

(2) Leaving cabinet secretaries unconfirmed in their roles could give the president even more leverage over them, or could leave them without full authority in the job.

Historical note from Paul Light, a professor of public service at NYU who has written extensively on the appointment process: “The Senate grappled with this question in the very first Congress when it ordered George Washington to send nominations to the Hill at a reasonable pace. Senators rightly worried that presidents might use acting appointees to evade oversight and institutional prerogatives. Yet, we haven’t heard a word from the Senate on the Trump administration’s abuse of its acting authority.”

Justice Clarence Thomas argued a concurring opinion in a 2017 case that: [“… there was seemingly no constitutional basis for having acting cabinet members and that there needed to be limits on a president’s power to fill the highest positions without Senate confirmation.”]

FYI: U.S. Constitution - Article 2 Section 2 requires that the president obtain “the advice and consent of the Senate” before appointing cabinet officials and a few other provisions therein.

Legal scholars have also questioned the president’s power to use the “acting” authority in replacing Ms. Nielsen at HSD. This from Steve Vladeck, law professor at the University of Texas, April 8, 2019: 

“To me, the real difference is avoiding Senate confirmation — either because the individuals he wants running these agencies can’t be confirmed even by a Republican-controlled Senate, or because he’s worried about the kinds of questions they’d have to answer and or concessions they’d have to make in order to be confirmed, either way, that’s an alarming argument for bypassing a Senate controlled by his own party.”

Continue article at the NY TIMES here via MSN.

My 2 cents: Just mark this up as another dumb-ass Trump ploy for surely that is what it is. 

Yes, he is president, yes, his base sticks with him through thick and thin, but why is beyond any comprehension except his base hates DEMS more than they care about rational government from Trump, thus they accept anything he says or does and that is very worrisome above all else.

Thanks for stropping by.