'This guy doesn't know anything': the inside story of Trump's shambolic transition team

[arenean]

Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, reveals how Trump’s bungled presidential transition set the template for his time in the White House.

Full article here, but the last paragraph is particularly telling....

The department of agriculture was an excellent case study. The place had an annual budget of $164bn and was charged with so many missions critical to the society that the people who worked there played a drinking game called Does the Department of Agriculture Do It? Someone would name a function of government, say, making sure that geese don’t gather at US airports, and fly into jet engines. Someone else would have to guess whether the agriculture department did it. (In this case, it did.) Guess wrong and you had to drink. Among other things, the department essentially maintained rural America, and also ensured that the American poor and the elderly did not starve. Much of its work was complicated and technical – and yet for the months between the election and the inauguration, Trump people never turned up to learn about it. Only on inauguration day did they flood into the building, but the people who showed up had no idea why they were there or what they were meant to do. Trump sent, among others, a long-haul truck driver, a telephone company clerk, a gas company meter reader, a country club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern and the owner of a scented candle company. One of the CVs listed the new appointee’s only skill as “a pleasant demeanor”.

All these people had two things in common. They were Trump loyalists. And they knew nothing whatsoever about the job they suddenly found themselves in. A new American experiment was underway.

[underpants]

1. "Beachhead teams"

That's what Pence called them on the morning of the inauguration. It was an idea Romney came up with - send it temps and then determine if they stayed or find people to replace them.

The beloved Jared asked during their first transition trip to the White House, "How many of these people need to be replaced?" Answer, "All of them" (you freaking dumbass)

[Achilleaze]

2. KKKristofacist BeachHeaders, Inc. (R)

[genxlib]

3. I already see something that doesn't add up

A Trump loyalist with a pleasant demeanor?

Sorry. I’ve seen no evidence that such a thing exists. I think they were padding their resume.

[roscoeroscoe]

4. Confederacy of Dunces

I mean, wow.