Part of an occasional series examining President Trump’s progress against Candidate Trump’s promises.
The promise: One of the most critical promises then-candidate Donald Trump made was to drain the swamp. NBC News has conveniently made available a collage of videos of Trump’s promise here, but what it comes down to is the removal of corruption from government. Because public perception, valid or not, is that corruption is rampant in Washington, D.C., this promise became one of the linchpins to his victory in the 2016 Presidential election.
Results So Far: The answer to the question of whether or not the swamp is being drained appears, on its face, to be easy: Failure. There are several categories to be considered: those in which lobbyists are nominated to positions of influence over the agencies which they were lobbying; those officials who refuse to cooperate with what appear to be appropriate requests for information, including subpoenas, from Congress; and those in which officials of agencies are forced to leave due to a scandal which can be classified as swampy. Sometimes the former category can be difficult to define for positions such as the Secretary of the Treasury, as the position requires specialized knowledge that can be acquired only by working in the industry; and, of course, I am not familiar with all officials and their, ah, peccadilloes. Nor do I keep up with all the news, all the time.
I will present my observations as a series of categories. Feel free to notify me of corrections using the mail link to the upper right.
Not a swamp creature to my knowledge: Sessions (Attorney General; recused himself from Russia investigation when ethically required to do so, much to the horror of President Trump); Tillerson (State; no known swamp scandals, although Trump supporters might argue that calling his President a ‘moron’ was scandalous, and his activities at State were more likely incompetent in damaging State’s capabilities); Mattis (Defense); Esper (Defense); Perdue (Ag); Azar (HHS – although his political contributions might be considered swampy by some); Carson (HUD); Chao (Transportation); Brouillette (Energy); DeVos (Education – although one is tempted to accuse her of incompetence); Wilkie (Veterans); Kelly (Homeland); Nielsen (Homeland – the family separation policy may be shameful, but it is not swampy); Lighthizer (Trade Rep); Coats (DNI – but Trump ended up dismissing him); Haley (UN Ambassador); Nauert (UN Ambassador – withdrawn); Craft (UN Ambassador); McMahon (SBA); Carranza (SBA).
Lobbyist for industry or similarly disqualified: Shanahan (Defense; lobbyist for Boeing, no known expertise – nomination withdrawn); Bernhardt (Interior – lobbyist for firms in the energy industry); Pruitt (EPA – energy industry lobbyist); Wheeler (EPA – energy industry lobbyist, although he had also worked in the EPA prior to being a lobbyist – perhaps that deserves an AND, instead); Scalia (Labor – lobbyist for Chamber of Commerce)
Appointed because they were thought to be highly compliant with President Trump’s wishes over the legal requirements of their positions: Pompeo (State; alleged to be part of the Ukraine scandal; also headed CIA, where leaks indicated he ran it as a political, rather than professional, operation); Barr (AG; displayed dubious behavior in response to the Mueller Report)
Sordid history in position: Zinke (Interior – accepted trips on private jets from entities his agency regulated; general budgetary excesses; subject of internal investigations concerning various matters, including interference with casinos); Ross (Commerce – reported to sleep through meetings); Price (HHS – resigned after criticism for using charters and military aircraft for travel); Perry (reported involvement in the Ukraine scandal; distinctively unknowledgeable and unprepared for the position); Shulkin (Veterans – dismissed for apparently lying to ethics investigators); Mulvaney (Management & Budget – reported to direct resources away from tasks he doesn’t like, admitted to quid pro quo and tried to walk it back in the Ukraine scandal); Pruitt (EPA – subject of 15+ (!) investigations for general incompetency in the position).
Just a dubious history: Puzder (Labor – nomination withdrawn; former CEO of CKE; involved in some allegedly unethical practices; on the positive side won some industry awards); Ross (Commerce – reported to have lied about his net worth prior to joining the Trump Admin); Acosta (Labor – led the infamous Jeffery Epstein Florida plea deal); Jackson (Veterans – allegations of substance abuse, proclaimed Trump having the best of health when report showed otherwise, unprepared – nomination withdrawn); Ratcliffe (DNI – found to have misrepresented his expertise – nomination withdrawn); Haspel (CIA – involved in the torture ops during the Iraq War); Mulvaney (Management & Budget – admitted he wouldn’t meet with a corporate lobbyist if they didn’t have a big check in hand)
Refused to cooperate with Congress: Mnuchin (Treasury – Trump tax returns).
The swamp is partially about influence, and President Trump’s hotel holdings are well-known to those who wish to buy his attention and compliance. Open Secrets has documented quite a lot of this, such as Saudi Arabia:
Saudi foreign agents and lobbyists came under fire for spending more than $270,000 to put up a group of veterans at Trump International Hotel. The vets were lobbying for changes to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) — legislation that enabled 9/11 lawsuits against the government of Saudi Arabia — after those veterans claimed they did not know their trip had been organized and financed by the Government of Saudi Arabia.
The Bigger Picture: This, of course, lacks context. None of Trump’s officials have actually been convicted of a federal crime, but then his term, whether 4 or 8 years, has not yet come to an end, making comparisons dubious. It’s worth noting that in the Obama Administration, only General Petraeus, then serving as Director of the CIA, was convicted of a crime; the Bush II Administration saw eight of its members convicted of crimes, including Chief of Staff to the VP Scooter Libby; two in the Clinton Administration (one being child pornography, which is not swampy); the Bush I administration saw one in its 4 years of existence; and then we get to the Reagan years, which appear to be positively rife with scandal – I’m not even going to bother to count. Carter’s four years had none; Ford saw one on tax evasion; Nixon eleven, with nine for various corrupt practices related to Watergate, and including the shocking conviction of VP Agnew on tax evasion.
Related scandals not resulting in convictions? I’ll grant my memory prior to Obama is spotty, and I don’t have time to chase all of that down. But with Obama, there was very little out and out scandal beyond Petraeus that I recall. When the tragic Benghazi Incident occurred, the Republicans beat the drums concerning Secretary of State Clinton, but despite multiple hostile investigations, nothing was ever found; the only reasonable conclusion isn’t that she’s smarter than the Republicans, but that there was nothing to be found. I also recall the Fast and Furious scandal, involving AG Holder, but, again, nothing seems to have come of it.
Again, this is apples to oranges, and inferences as to how Trump compares to his Democratic and Republican predecessors is at least somewhat in the eye of the beholder.
SO … this beholder says he’s never seen so much scandal & squalor in any White House Administration, but then I’m a trifle too young to remember the Nixon Administration. That judgment began as an impression, but research for this post suggests that the swamp, if anything, has become deeper; and that campaign promise, as it progressively became more and more broken, has inspired raucous mockery among the political opposition.
For those who care about easily-kept campaign promises being, well, kept, Trump has apparently failed, and failed badly, on this one.
And, for those intent on using the easily swayed Trump for their own purposes, such as the Evangelicals and the >ahem< lobbyists, they won’t care. They’re getting what they wanted and corruption is a non-starter for them.
