White House Survivor

d4m10n said:
"...aides and allies started to contemplate the length of Mulvaney’s tenure in the West Wing."

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/20/mick-mulvaney-impeachment-white-house-052708
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I like the last paragraph of that report:
Several White House aides and Trump allies presume Mulvaney’s job is safe during the impeachment proceedings. That’s in part, they say, because no one else would want the chief of staff job right now and partly because Mulvaney is too much at the center of the Ukraine scandal for Trump to unceremoniously dump him as he has done with other senior aides like John Bolton, his former national security adviser.
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Mulvaney needs to lawyer-up ASAP. He's the one going to take the bullet, not the Secret Service. :rolleyes:
 
Norman Alexander said:
No, they're not, actually. But they share one thing in common: The CEO and "the board" need to know what the business is in the business of doing. Why does the organisation even exist. And hopefully, how does this organisation do what it does better.

In short (in management school speak): Mission statement, and business practices.

In a private business, Donny's "mission statement" was pretty clearly "Make me as rich as possible the easiest way possible by any means possible while hanging about looking cool with good-looking women in flashy cars with gold stuff everywhere". And his business practices were "Screw everyone else, I'm all right and **** you if you get in trouble". And to be frank, if that's what he wanted then fine. Let him knock himself out trying that...with his own private business.

But that's nothing what government is about. And that's not how government works. But I'm sure I don't have to explain that at all.

Donny's problem is he has brought his private business practices into government administration. And within 3 years, here we are...
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Uh, basic techniques of running a large organization effectively are pretty much the same no matter what the goals are.
I think you are being grossly unfair to private business. Trump's management methods would not be tolerated at most large businesses.
 
dudalb said:
Uh, basic techniques of running a large organization effectively are pretty much the same no matter what the goals are.
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Having worked in both for many years each, I know there are some notable differences. Basically, private is profit-driven, public is service-driven. Different "mission statements".

I think you are being grossly unfair to private business. Trump's management methods would not be tolerated at most large businesses.
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I agree. Trump's methods would be actively and rapidly stopped by any ethical business which wants to be a successful ongoing enterprise.

My point is if it his own private business then he can do it his way if he wants. And good luck to all who sail in that ship! Trump has always been involved in the dodgiest of dealings and the worst of the underworld shysters. He is a complete dummy, and they have always played him like a fiddle. Which is why Putin has his pale white balls in his desk drawer now.

But the US government is not Trump's own private business. It's owned by the US public and it is service-oriented, not profit-oriented. So his "business methods" not only don't apply, they are diametrically opposite to those required for the job. Which is why he cannot understand why he is being bolloxed for "doing what he always does".
 
Dr. Keith said:
I don't know about that interview, but this is a decent read:

https://time.com/5701364/david-shulkin-donald-trump/
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Interesting. The thing that struck me most about his interview with Trump was that Trump never listened to Shulkin. He'd ask a question and then interrupt before Shulkin could answer. It was also not surprising to see Trump ask the same question over and over again but not listen to the answer or attempted answer. It indicates he didn't really wanted or cared to listen to anything Shulkin had to say.

It really did sound like a skit right out of SNL.
 
kellyb said:
Can I get a synopsis of what Shulkin says?
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Sorry for not answering sooner.

This is a pretty good synopsis:

https://www.businessinsider.com/dav...ent-undermined-him-planned-his-ouster-2019-10

"I was in agreement that every veteran should get a choice about where they get their care, but I wanted to do this in a way that would not destroy the current VA system, because I believe the VA is doing things the private sector is not doing well," Shulkin explained, worrying that privatizing too quickly or widely would undermine the quality of care.

"That was the issue I fought hardest for, and the one that ultimately ended up costing me my job," Shulkin said, arguing that those political appointees ultimately determined Shulkin needed to be pushed out, and as he tells it, "perfected the art of the leak."

Specifically, Shulkin blames those political appointees for leaking his travel schedule and lodging an allegation — which Shulkin vehemently disputes — that he used government funds to pay for his wife's travel to vacation in Europe.

In reality, Shulkin says, he and his wife, who are both doctors, had both been invited to a Five Eyes security conference in Italy and their travel plans were approved by ethics officials. But the allegation that he misappropriated taxpayer funds was enough to cast a cloud over his job.

Then one day, Shulkin recalled, his deputy security brought him an email he found on a copy machine from one political appointee to other appointees outlining a plan to remove him, his deputy secretary, other senior officials, and "put in place people who agree with us."

Even when Shulkin tried to fire the political appointees trying to destroy his career, he says the White House stepped in and prevented them from being removed.

And even after assurances from Trump himself and former White House chief of staff John Kelly that his job was secure, Trump blindsided Shulkin in April 2018 by ultimately firing him in a tweet.
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I do remember how it was reported at the time. As if his wife was taking a taxpayer-funded junket to go shopping in Europe. In fact she is also a doctor and had been invited to attend the same conference with the Secretary, and it had all been approved by the VA in advance. There was a group of political appointees who wanted him fired from early on because they basically wanted to privatize the VA. Get rid of the whole VA system and just let veterans get their care in the private sector (the government would pay for the care, kinda like with Medicare).
 
Mulvaney was kept totally out of the loop on the Baghdadi hit. Not good at all for his prosepcts of being WH COS very much longer.
 
dudalb said:
Mulvaney was kept totally out of the loop on the Baghdadi hit. Not good at all for his prosepcts of being WH COS very much longer.
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Did they think he would blab too fast and endanger the mission? If so, they shouldn't have told Donny either until it was done.

Actually... Is that what they actually did??
 
NEXT! Step out of the game, please...Tim Morrison, a senior White House director on Europe and Russia.

It is was not clear on Wednesday night whether Morrison’s imminent departure from the White House, first reported by National Public Radio, is a resignation or a sacking. But either way, it suggests his testimony to the House committees holding impeachment hearings is unlikely to be helpful to the president’s cause, and is being given in defiance of a White House order not to participate in the inquiry.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...rison-reportedly-to-depart-as-testimony-looms
 
Norman Alexander said:
She's looking a LOT older... Maybe Donny could replace her with a younger version now?
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She's in a tough time in a woman's life. As such I can sympathise. I don't think men experience the same sudden change. It can actually be brutal.

I don't know why I cut her a certain amount of slack, but I do. I'm not sure she's 100 percent behind her boss, and some of the tidbits she comes out with seem almost subversive. "Alternative facts"- priceless.

Meanwhile Trump doesn't seem to age - he's apparently mummified, with shellacked hair and a dusting of orange spray-paint from head to toe.
 
Trebuchet said:
Mulvaney was kept totally out of the loop on the Baghdadi hit. Not good at all for his prosepcts of being WH COS very much longer.
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Meh. Did he have a need to know? Not really.
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From various articles I have seen, having the Chief of Staff involved is usually part of standard procedure. They can provide coordination between various government agencies, handle the media, and plan contingencies in case of failure.

There is no legal requirement to have the CoS involved, its just good policy.
 
Roger Stone being found guilty is making some people who work or have worked in the Trump White House very nervous.
 
It's a shame that that story is getting buried in the double whammy of the Friday news dump and being overshadowed by the impeachment inquiry today.
 
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