J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS
Here’s What You Need to Know
The new Administration has used many of its first days promulgating several major executive actions, offering up numerous photo ops of President Trump surrounded by his senior staff signing these documents in the Oval Office. The problem is that these executive actions appear to be written as broad statements and souped-up press releases – not orders that have the force of law – to push a narrative that the President is taking action on his campaign promises while appearing as presidential as possible.
Beyond whatever debate there may be on the substance of these policies, the hasty preparation and lack of appropriate staffing of these executive actions are causing long term problems for the Administration:
- Lack Of Coordination Outside Of White House = Implementation Chaos: It appears none of the federal agencies and departments impacted by these executive actions are being consulted prior to their drafting and release, which leaves those agencies and departments, teeming with civil servants that may not be thrilled with the policy directives to begin with, struggling to quickly understand and comply with these orders. This leads to things like the confusion over whether the President’s order on refugees and immigration applied to U.S. green card holders.
- Lack Of Coordination Inside The White House = Unforced Errors And A Poorly Served President. The executive orders are reportedly being drafted by senior White House advisor for policy Steven Miller and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, both of whom were key messaging strategists on the campaign. But, other senior staff with important roles to ensure the success of presidential actions are not being included in the process, leading to unforced errors. Miller and Bannon’s ownership of the executive actions suggests the measures are being used more for publicity than policy. And while these actions may win them halleluiahs from the choir, they undermine the President’s long-term objectives.
- Lack Of Buy-In From Capitol Hill = Frayed Relations On Other Agenda Items: The White House’s poor execution of the President’s executive action on immigration and refugees was also due to their failure to alert Congressional leadership of the hastily drafted and released executive actions. This cost them a smooth roll-out of the policy as Congressional Republicans were caught flat-footed by the measure and were not coordinated in their response to the President’s move. Continuing these run-and-gun tactics with regards to executive action will have serious long-term consequences, which will manifest as the President seeks support on the Hill for his nominees and policy agenda. Even if key Republicans in Congress are not consulted on the content of executive actions, failing to loop them in prior to the document’s release leads to poor messaging overall. The President just announced a Supreme Court nominee and a litany of other nominations he will need help from Congressional leadership to shepherd through, and this stumble in the relationship between either end of Pennsylvania Avenue could put constraints on that help.
Executive actions are an important and powerful tool of the presidency. But the new Administration seems to be using them more casually than has previously been seen. Whether this is intentional or not, it seems to have created more controversy and confusion than it is worth. It remains to be seen whether or not these tactics will change in coming weeks as the freshly minted White House staff gets their bearings.
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Mark Your Calendar
Thursday, February 23 – Sunday, February 26: DNC’s Winter Meeting where a new Democratic Party Chair will be elected