Day: August 18, 2017

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   For the sheer amount of soap-opera quality media coverage the White House staff has prompted since President Trump was sworn-in on Inauguration Day, the most recent personnel moves in the executive mansion have created surprisingly little controversy by comparison. In a nutshell you could characterize the changes as establishment-out, outsiders-in. By all appearances the switches have worked to squelch a lot of the media’s paranoid hyperventilating over the internal workings of this unique-in-history administration. Nancy Cook of Politico reported, “Under former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, there was no formal policymaking process in the West Wing: no set protocol for meeting with the president, giving him information, or presenting various options with which to make decisions. Sometimes, multiple staffers said, disagreements broke out in the Oval Office in front of the president. “That disorganization ultimately led to a string of policy failures, including the collapse of health care reform, even though Republicans control both the White House and Congress. “Now, as President Donald Trump looks to embark on an ambitious fall policy drive that includes tax reform, an infrastructure package and maybe health care – again – his new chief of staff John Kelly is…