Hundreds of appointees are being re-interviewed regarding loyalty to Trump
In the middle of a devastating pandemic and searing economic crisis, the White House has an urgent question for its colleagues across the administration: Are you loyal enough to President Donald Trump?
The White House’s presidential personnel office is conducting one-on-one interviews with health officials and hundreds of other political appointees across federal agencies, an exercise some of the subjects have called “loyalty tests” to root out threats of leaks and other potentially subversive acts just months before the election, according to interviews with 15 current and former senior administration officials.
The interviews are being arranged with officials across a wide range of departments including Health and Human Services, Defense, Treasury, Labor and Commerce and include the top tier of Trump aides — Senate-confirmed appointees. Officials are expected to detail their career goals and thoughts on current policies, said more than a dozen people across the administration with knowledge of the meetings.
White House officials have said that the interviews are a necessary exercise to determine who would be willing to serve in a second term if President Donald Trump is reelected. But officials summoned for the interviews say the exercise is distracting from numerous policy priorities, like working to fight the pandemic, revitalizing the economy or overhauling regulations, and instead reflect the White House’s conviction that a “deep state” is working to undermine the president.
It’s “an exercise in ferreting out people who are perceived as not Trump enough,” said one person briefed on the meetings.
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The re-interviewing exercise is being led by Johnny McEntee, a 30-year-old Trump aide dating back to the 2016 campaign who was installed earlier this year as chief of the White House personnel office, responsible for filling thousands or jobs across the federal agencies.
The interviews can take the form of general questions such as an appointee’s career goals, but the interviews can also veer into territory meant to test a person’s perceived loyalty, like asking for the appointees’ thoughts on the U.S. relationship with China, or asking probing questions about why an appointee was chosen for his or her current job. Interviewers have also asked people to give examples of ways they are supporting the administration.
“It just seems like you could be a rocket scientist, but all they care about is whether you are MAGA,” said one senior administration official familiar with the interview process. “It is fair to do something to prepare to fill jobs in a second term, but right now, it is hard to know what the metrics are with this personnel office for being successful. There is no set criteria for what makes a good political appointee.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/trump-appointees-loyalty-interviews-364616
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I keep saying it's rubber room time for him. 
