‘Ready, shoot, aim’: President Trump’s loyalty tests cause hiring headaches
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ready-shoot-aim-president-trumps-loyalty-tests-cause-hiring-headaches/2018/04/29/7756ec9c-4a33-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html
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The failed nomination of Ronny L. Jackson, the president’s physician, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs was the latest example of the sometimes haphazard way Trump unilaterally elevates people with whom he has a personal rapport.
Trump’s operating principle is “ready, shoot, aim, as opposed to ready, aim, shoot,” said one White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly,
A Republican strategist who works closely with the West Wing was even more blunt: “The Trump White House vetting machine is an oxymoron. There’s only one answer — Trump decides who he wants and tells people. That’s the vetting process.”
During the transition, a number of Cabinet officials were announced with little more than a public-records search, according to current and former administration officials. “He would announce, and then we’d say, ‘You need to fill out some forms,’ ” one former official recalled.
In Jackson’s case, the president stunned some of his most senior aides when he told them in the Oval Office on a Monday in March that he might select his personal doctor to lead Veterans Affairs. At the time, the department’s embattled secretary, David Shulkin, was still on the job, and officials said that neither Trump nor his team had conducted an even cursory interview with Jackson.
Aides urged the president to delay the announcement, but two days later, he shared his new VA pick on Twitter.
The White House defended the nomination by arguing that Jackson already had been thoroughly vetted because of the sensitivity of his job as presidential physician. But a White House official acknowledged that Jackson’s FBI background investigation was not completed until after Trump had already revealed on Twitter that Jackson was his pick.
The White House also neglected to consult or even notify key members of Congress before the announcement. Including lawmakers in the deliberations might have helped ease Jackson’s path, according to White House officials and senators.
Aides described a process of simply using Google searches to vet candidates during the transition, as well as soliciting recommendations from other political appointees, before the more rigorous White House vetting process was underway. Early in the administration, when more than a dozen senior aides regularly breezed in and out of the Oval Office, some would deposit negative articles on the president’s Resolute desk about their internal rivals in an attempt to block them, people familiar with the matter said.
Problems often arose when the president chose candidates largely on a gut impulse. For example, Trump hired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state after a meeting with him, remarking to advisers that he admired his swagger and business acumen. He did not, however, delve into their foreign policy differences, which became a source of tension and, ultimately, a reason for Tillerson’s firing.