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A Republican senator expressed his unhappiness to Susie Wiles, the incoming White House chief of staff
“I sent you a text message three days ago,” the lawmaker said.
Wiles, who ran Donald Trump’s campaign, he said he understood and would respond, without appearing to be in a rush.
There is no doubt that his phone must be flooded with messages from people who want a job, or influence, in the incoming Trump administration.
The behind-the-scenes game ahead of Trump’s second presidency could be illustrating the legislative and administrative battles the next White House will be forced to fight. (Getty Images)
But the game illuminates a dilemma Trump may face in a city he controls, with both houses of Congress under Republican control (and Kamala Harris peacefully certifying the transition of power yesterday, four years after the Capitol riot).
The flip side of nearly unlimited influence is that when things go wrong, there’s no one else to blame.
And then there is the black hole known as Congress. Having dragged Mike Johnson at the finish line of the presidential election, making calls even from his golf course, Trump now faces a dilemma after the Christmas debt ceiling battle that just delayed the budget fight until March .
Through a process known as reconciliation, which lowers the 60-vote threshold in the Senate to 51, both parties have used it to dominate the party line, with Trump favoring “a big, beautiful bill.” That would include budget cuts, energy deregulation, tax cuts, border crackdowns and other presidential priorities.
But many on The Hill support two separate bills, and some in Trump World believe Congress simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to take the kitchen sink approach.
So the big, beautiful bill may not pass until June, depriving the 47th president of an early victory.
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Johnson will only have a 1-vote margin, making it difficult for him to deliver the deep spending cuts hardliners want in an echo of the battle he lost. Kevin McCarthy.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security would have a hard time mounting a major initiative because, like other agencies, it’s operating under the interim spending budget that nearly shut down the government at Christmas.
The risk of pushing two bills is that once the first passes, momentum to pass a second measure may dissipate, even if it contains Trump priorities like tax cuts.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s one-vote majority leaves little room for error in his proposals to rally his caucus around the new president’s agenda. (Valerie Plesch)
Trump hedged his bets yesterday, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt: “I would prefer one, but … I’m open to either way, as long as we get something done as quickly as possible.”
Washington is a city obsessed with titles and perceived influence, and that will affect how the White House is run.
Wiles has helped downgrade some jobs that have always been the titles of assistant to the president to deputy assistant to the president, something no sane outsider would care about, but which is a major deal for insiders. That’s because after reaching the limit of assistant jobs, the only alternative was to create a bunch of deputy positions.
Wiles, for his part, told Axios: “I don’t accept people who want to work solo or be a star… My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, inappropriate second-guessing or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”
Karoline Leavitt, the incoming press secretary, is also being deprived of the large office her predecessors have used for at least three decades. This goes to another communication assistant.
I remember being in the second floor office when Mike McCurry was press secretary, and bill clinton coming in and chatting while I was working on my book “Spin Cycle”. The reason for the large office was the press mingling and sometimes interviews that took place, which could not be accommodated in the smaller offices in the West Wing.
Anyone in Wiles’ sensitive position would invariably upset some officials during a process that determines winners and losers. But Trump sees her as a grandmother and doesn’t yell at her like he would other officials over a disagreement.
As for by Elon Musk powerful role, Trump enjoys the company of rich people, and the owner of X is the richest person on the planet. So it has influence until it doesn’t, if there is a falling future.
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Also, it will be harder for Musk to stick around once Trump moves from Mar-a-Lago to the White House, unless he wants to give Elon the Lincoln Bedroom.
For now, the transition is organized chaos. But as Trump knows all too well, having done this job before, when there’s a terrorist attack or a border incident or rising grocery prices on his watch, he owns it.
Meanwhile, with Kamala Harris routinely certifying his own defeat yesterday, with live coverage taking into account the January 6 story, Donald Trump posted this:
Trump has made no secret of his feelings about the Biden team’s handling of the presidential transition. (Getty/AP)
“Biden is doing everything he can to make the TRANSITION as difficult as possible, from never-before-seen legislation to costly and ridiculous executive orders on the new green scam and other money-wasting scams. Don’t have fear, these ‘orders’ will. they will all end shortly and we will become a Nation of Common Sense and Strength!!!”
It’s worse than what happened January 6, 202?
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It is true that the outgoing president has, among other things, ordered a halt to oil exploration along 625 million hectares offshore, but there is no reason why the president of “drill, baby, drill ” I can’t reverse it, although I could slow it down.
Harris gave a brief talk yesterday about the peaceful transfer of power, and Biden argued in a Washington Post op-ed that we must never forget what happened on that dark day.
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No matter who you agree with, I think it’s fair to say that this issue was litigated in the election, and Americans voted to put Trump back in the White House knowing full well what happened during the televised riot.
