Bob Bauer’s explication on Lawfare of President Trump’s use of the government lawyers really reinforced, through example, my thoughts concerning the various sectors of society and why processes, as well as leaders, are not interchangeable:
But the crux of the problem seems to be the president’s failure to accept that it is the counsel’s responsibility to advise him of limits—legal constraints—on what he wants. Lawyers are his “staff,” like any other: He wants their personal loyalty, which, as he understands it, can mean that they must ignore or work around legal and ethical limits on the pursuit of his personal and political wishes. A leading example is the president’s refusal to accept that his attorney general was required to follow Justice Department regulations in recusing himself from oversight of the Russia investigation.
In this single paragraph is illustrated the expectations of a businessman vs the realities of a government. President Trump expects the government lawyers will serve his whim and fancy, but they do not – they give legal advice, but they have responsibilities which are dictated by the government, not by Trump, and he cannot order them about as he might wish. This is an exemplification of different expectations of optimizations, the clashing of purposes – but it’s not a beautiful cymbal, but more a thud followed by the scream of the workman who just got his caught between the hammer and the nail.
Bauer then gives some insight into the ways of government lawyers:
Executive branch lawyers can do their work only if certain bedrock conditions are met. One is adherence to dependable process of some sort for building legal advice into the decision-making process. The other is an understanding of the lawyers’ role. Trump has little feel or use for process, a limitation that has become apparent, from the development of the first travel ban, through the tweeted announcement of his intention to bar transgender Americans from military service, to his appearance in the press room on Friday to tout—without preparation or any briefing of relevant foreign policy and national security staff—the invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The president has exhibited a lack of understanding of the lawyers’ role and sees them as serving an enabling function—just making it possible for him to do what he wants. And often when they don’t do as he desires on the issues he most cares about, Trump instinctively resorts to threat and bullying, as he has publicly done in the case of Jeff Sessions.
Government is not a bigger business. It’s an entity with responsibilities far different from that of business – and because President Trump refuses to recognize this basic (but obscured by American anti-intellectualism) fact, our government will continue to fail to meet its basic responsibilities in all executive areas.
The government is 200+ years old, and did not pop into existence fully-formed. These processes were put in place for reasons, usually having to do with the needs of the Executive. Trump’s attempts to twist the government to protect himself will, inevitably, damage the government and our security.
