In a Friday night announcement, the White House nominated a permanent inspector general to take the reins from Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who has run the office since January. [WaPo]
This follows the removal of the intelligence community’s inspector general (IG) following a report that reflects poorly on the Administration. And Senator Grassley’s (R-IA) reaction, back in the Politico article?
Grassley is unique in his crusade. No GOP lawmaker has perhaps been more outspoken about Trump’s hostility toward inspectors general, and the seven-term senator brings with him a résumé that includes authoring several laws on whistleblower protections and the independence of the federal government’s watchdogs. In his letters to Trump, he often notes his previous efforts to hold the Obama administration accountable for similar erosions of congressional authority.
“IGs can help drain the swamp,” Grassley wrote in an April 21 letter to Trump, his second direct plea to the president on the issue of inspectors general in recent weeks. “They find the waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs and they find ways to save taxpayer money.”
Which is a complete misunderstanding of the President’s motivations. While Senators Lankford and Portman may think the IGs are not the President’s enemies, those IGs are, in fact, inimical to the President’s ambitions, and that’s to get re-elected.
Don’t worry about the President’s base. It’ll take more than a bad report – or ten – to shift them. They’ll just blame it on a Deep State for which they have no evidence except, circularly, reports such as these.
But every bad report issued by an IG will potentially impact those who’ll decide the upcoming elections: the independent voters who’ve not yet decided if Trump is worth keeping around. These bad reports are reflective of an important, if understated, facet of a Presidential incumbent, and that’s competency.
Trump came into this job with no relevant experience; he’s shown himself to be incurious about the requirements of the job; and he no doubt has a good idea of just how much he has to lie to hold this Administration together, even if it has become a laughingstock, both within and without, of the nation. That, along with the huge pile of bad reports from leading news sources, is a signal to him that his Administration hardly knows what it’s doing.
And that may negatively impact the independents’ opinion of him come election time. Trump’s edge, if any at all, is very, very small, and elections since 2016 have not been good news for the Republicans.
But there’s one more facet to consider here. Senator Grassley (R-IA), despite his sad rubber-stamping of most of the judiciary nominees which he was handed while he was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (now Senator Graham’s (R-SC) responsibility), is an old line Republican who believes in government oversight. That’s clear from the letter he wrote Trump. His goal is better government, whether you agree with the Senator on its definition or not.
Trump believes in advancing Trump’s ambitions, and that’s all. If that’s not congruent with better government, we know which one Trump will pick.
I expect Senator Grassley will be sorely disappointed if he seriously believes President Trump will pay the least attention to him. I don’t look for the lip-flapping of Senate Republicans to have any effect on the President in this matter. He’s scrambling for every little edge he can find in this election, and this could be a big one. For Trump, it’s Screw America, my ambitions are in trouble!
