The Washington Post is worried that President Donald Trump is removing people from his administration he sees as disloyal to him or his agenda.
In an article titled “Trump embarks on expansive search for disloyalty as administration-wide purge escalates,” three Post reporters try to craft a narrative of something nefarious, even though any president would do the same thing.
“Johnny McEntee, Trump’s former personal aide who now leads the effort as director of presidential personnel, has begun combing through various agencies with a mandate from the president to oust or sideline political appointees who have not proved their loyalty, according to several administration officials and others familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations,” the Post reported.
Notice the entire story is based on anonymous “administration officials and others familiar with the matter.”
The article contains just two on-the-record statements, one from former White House adviser Cliff Sims who said there was nothing wrong with the president expecting loyalty in his administration.
“Loyalist shouldn’t be a dirty word,” Sims told the outlet. “Loyalty to the duly elected president and his agenda is exactly what we should expect from our unelected appointees.”
The other statement came from Brendan Buck, longtime adviser to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), who said finding people who never take issue with a president’s agenda would be difficult (without noting that Obama seemed to have no trouble on this front).
“If they also insist on hiring only people who’ve never taken issue with something the president has done, it’s going to be slim pickings,” Buck said.
Perhaps it’s not so much about being in lock-step with the president but about carrying out his agenda without undermining it through leaks and insubordination.
Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said on Twitter that there was nothing wrong with Trump cleaning house to expel disloyalty.
“There is nothing g wrong with this. Every POTUS deserves a team committed to the President’s agenda, not their own. Does anyone think if Bernie wins he won’t install his own people, and rid the WH of anyone ‘loyal’ to Trump? This is fine,” Fleischer tweeted.
Among those who have been let go so far are John Rood, who was formerly in charge of Defense Department policy and the Vindman brothers, all of whom were seen as working against Trump and helping Democrats try to remove him from office. Victoria Coates, a deputy national security adviser, was moved to the Energy Department. It was announced this week that Trump was moving Ric Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, to Director of National Intelligence. Grenell has worked already to get the community in line with Trump’s agenda. The previous acting head of the intelligence community was Joseph Maguire, whose deputy, Andrew P. Hallman, resigned when Grenell was put in charge.
It is unlikely the Post would be worried if a Democrat president cleared out people who didn’t agree with his or her agenda, as Fleischer said.