TRUMP 2.0: THE ART OF INCOMPETENCE

THE IN OVER THEIR HEAD GANG

Donald Trump routinely brags that his achievements, from passing a huge tax cut to building a gaudy ballroom to capturing the Venezuelan dictator, are the greatest ever.

Here’s one that actually may be true: Trump 2.0 may set a record for acts of incompetence. Consider:

-- Western North Carolina victims of the 2024 Hurricane Helene are still waiting for relief after he visited the area in January, vowing unlike the Biden Administration, “you will not be forgotten any longer.”

-- Both the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service have had interminable waits from phone calls to critical assistance.

-- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has created confusion with conflicting or dubious assertions on treating measles - which reached a record 34 year high - the efficacy of vaccines, and causes of autism. This is imperiling the safety and lives of Americans.

-- Defense Secretary Hegseth has been cited by the Department’s Inspector General for dangerously violating policy by using his private messaging app to discuss a pending American air strike; this could have endangered American lives. He has lost the confidence of many of America’s top flag officers.

-- The Justice Department’s primary loyalty to Trump, not the rule of law, has resulted in stunning embarrassments. Judges and grand juries have tossed out frivolous, political charges the department brought at Trump’s insistence.

-- Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, trying to protect Trump, have so botched up and lied about the investigation of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein that they assured the scandal will continue to plague the President.

This is not about Trump’s policies on issues like taxes, Ukraine or health care, agree or disagree, nor is it about corruption charges. It is about sheer incompetence.

There are multiple explanations. Elon Musk’s misnamed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) didn’t cut much spending but forced out critical personnel, who might have minimized some of these blunders. Those posts are either vacant or filled with less experienced employees.

Much more than the first Administration, Trump 2.0 has demanded positions be filled by total loyalists. That cut out some policy-knowledgeable conservatives.

There’s also some of the President’s reckless assertions like vowing to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) without a considered substitute. FEMA deals with natural disasters and the frozen situation there is taking a tragic toll on the western North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene in 2024. Billions of dollars of assistance are sitting on the table as the Democratic Governor and a Republican U.S. Senator plead for help.

This is a result of insensitivity and ineptitude. Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, has to approve any expenditure over $100,000. One effect is small communities hard hit by Hurricane Helene are waiting for months for much needed help. Homes totally destroyed are supposed to get the fair market replacement. But more than 600 homeowners, going back almost a year, are waiting in vain, some still paying mortgages on homes that were destroyed more than 15 months ago.

The staffing cutbacks, from DOGE and the Trump budget, already are evident Social Security has record backlogs and benefit delays. and Medicare applications and benefits. The Internal Revenue Service, with sluggish taxpayer services and delayed returns will face new challenges this tax season.

Compounding the problem is the Administration has put one man, Frank Bisignano in charge of both the Social Security Agency and the IRS. Detached experts give him good marks but he is overextended holding two big jobs.

There are other agency heads that don’t get good marks particularly compared to the first Administration. Then, even if you disagreed with Defense Secretary James Mattis or HHS Secretary Alex Azar or Attorney General William Barr, they clearly were qualified.

Even more than a few Republicans, most in private, say now Defense Secretary Hegseth, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Attorney General Bondi are in way over their heads, reflected in their blunders.

The Attorney General’s unprecedented failure to “get’ New York Attorney General Letita James and former FBI director James Comey should be humbling and humiliating. On multiple occasions federal grand juries refused the department’s effort to indict James. This is strikingly unusual, in well over 99% of cases federal grand juries follow the prosecution’s request.

A judge threw out another revenge charge against Comey because the Justice Department assigned an unlawful prosecutor. Bondi horrified even some conservatives when she was unaware that there is no “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment. The Attorney General and the equally unqualified FBI director, Kash Patel, reportedly are clashing. It’s tough to know who to cheer for or against.

Trump’s slipping poll ratings are, in part, due to a lesson he failed to learn from President Biden -- not to underestimate the affordability concerns of voters.

There is another Biden lesson that might haunt him. The Democratic President’s poll ratings actually started to decline in his first year when the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan was badly mishandled, the execution not the policy.

His approval ratings never recovered.