Other presidential orders cannot be written off to ignorance. This dilemma occurs frequently on the hot-button issue of immigration. The president gets animated on the subject, to say the least, and somehow it’s become a part of all of our lives, even when it’s not in our respective portfolios. Almost anything, any issue, and problem can be tied back to immigration in his mind.
At one point, Trump warmed to a new idea for solving what he viewed as the biggest crisis in American history: to label migrants as “enemy combatants.” Keep in mind this is the same designation given to hardcore terrorist suspects. If we said these illegals were a national security threat, Trump reasoned, then the administration had an excuse to keep all of them out of the country. It was unclear if someone had planted this in his head or whether he had come up with it on his own, but either way, advisors were mortified.
Trump toyed with the shocking proposal in meetings having nothing to do with the subject, asking random advisors what they thought. Word got around. It’s times like these when people freeze and don’t know what to say. They’ll give him one of those polite smiles reserved for a deranged relative who thinks you want to hear about his soul-searching solo retreat to the Rockies. Not receiving too much resistance, Trump went further and mused about shipping the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, where hardened terrorists were jailed. In his mind, the deterrent would be a powerful one: Come to the United States illegally, and you will be sent to a remote US detention facility in Cuba to live alongside murderous criminals.
The rumor escaped the confines of the White House. “Are you fucking kidding me?” one career State Department official blurted when informed of the proposal. “This is completely batshit.” Advisors worked to shut it down quickly and quietly. They argued it was wildly impractical (how could you ship thousands of migrants a day to Cuba?) and too expensive (Trump often was persuaded against something if he thought it was too pricey, ironic for someone who is driving the country deeply into debt). Left unsaid was the more obvious reason. It was truly insane, on its face, for America to send migrant children and families to a terrorist prison in Cuba.
Finally, aside from its ineffectiveness and moral offensiveness, the policy would be outright illegal. Migrants seeking shelter in the United States are not “enemy combatants.” They are not engaged in hostilities against the United States on behalf of foreign states or terror groups, even though the president and his border agencies like to insinuate that the throngs of arriving migrants could have dangerous militants in their midst. Rational people know that the vast majority are innocent people trying to get to America for a better life. Despite the president’s recurring desire to do so, the law cannot be shaped like Play-Doh and made to say whatever he wants it to say. Before the president could make a public case for the concept, officials quashed it.
Or did they? That’s the question with any of the above ideas. You never really know if the fire has been put out completely. There may still be hot embers. Glimpses of them will appear in press conferences and off-the-cuff presidential statements. Then, one afternoon, the blaze might come roaring back, such as Trump’s recurring demands for one-on-one meetings with the world’s most brutal dictators. On some days, the return of a half-baked suggestion is harmless. On other days, it would cost the president his office if it was carried out. Ironically, many of those who worked to protect the president from losing his job became some of the people he was most interested in firing.
Dismantling the Guardrails
Donald Trump built his reality television career on the image of a tough boss. The immortal words “you’re fired!” became associated with Trump himself, establishing a unique place in the public lexicon. The president relishes this image and brought it with him into the White House. He keeps officials on their toes by wondering aloud about their tenure within his administration. He fans the flames of gossip about potential firings, often starting the rumors himself by complaining about his aides, knowing listeners will spread the word.
Officials are perpetually on “deathwatch,” as it is known inside the administration, waiting for that assassination tweet to come. Every week there is a new potential victim. For a president known for demanding loyalty pledges, this is a pernicious way of making sure staff do what he wants, by reminding them that the ax could come down at any time.
He publicly teased the possibility of firings after the midterm elections. “I have a fantastic cabinet,” he told reporters when asked about a shake-up, but added, “There are a few positions I am thinking about… I could leave it the way things are now and be very happy with it, or make changes and maybe be even happier with those positions.” Trump let some of the names leak into the press. Really, he wanted everyone to be concerned they were in the crosshairs.
No one is immune, including those he has known for years. One day, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin was the target of presidential ire for failing to follow through on an impossible task Trump assigned to him. The president wanted Mnuchin to use his powers to levy a new tax on certain types of financial transactions. The secretary explained repeatedly why he couldn’t do what was being demanded, but Trump complained behind his back.
“Every time I ask Mnuchin about this, he’s got another excuse. ‘We can’t do this, we can’t do that,’” he said, half faking the voice of Mnuchin, a man he has known for close to two decades. “What good is he? I thought we had the right guy at Treasury. But now I don’t know. Maybe not so much. What do you think—personnel mistake?” He likes to poll the room when someone is on the ropes. People laugh or offer approving facial expressions, usually relieved that the anvil isn’t hovering over their own head.
Trump will leave people in the lurch for weeks, months, or longer. He notoriously kept Kirstjen Nielsen, his homeland security chief, flummoxed about whether and when she might get sacked. For Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, his time in limbo was far longer. Rumors trickled out periodically for years that the president was dissatisfied and might be considering a change. The West Wing corner office that belongs to the national security advisor appears to be the most cursed, as all of its occupants under Trump have dealt with regular speculation from down the hall about whether their time has come.
The president considered making changes to the top of the ticket, too. On more than one occasion, Trump has discussed with staff the possibility of dropping Vice President Pence in advance of the 2020 election. Although Mr. Pence has been loyal to a fault, the president is always eager to “shake things up,” and Trump’s view of loyalty, of course, is self-serving to the extreme. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley was under active consideration to step in as vice president, which she did not discourage at first. Some of Trump’s closest advisors have suggested she would help shore up the president’s unpopularity with women, which demonstrates how little this White House understands women in the first place.
Trump avoids directly firing people, contrary to his television image. Instead he takes the cowardly way out and cuts them loose by way of social media. In July of 2017, he got rid of his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, with a tweet. Priebus expected to be removed and personally offered to resign, but he didn’t know his canning was imminent. After returning from a trip to New York, the president tweeted out, “I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F. Kelly as White House chief of staff. He is a great American…” Reince was sitting yards away in the presidential motorcade in the rain when he got the news. The president had not yet departed Air Force One. Another humiliating spectacle.