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Was “Never Trump” right?

Remember back during the primaries when the “Never Trump” movement emerged? It was on the Republican side, and consisted largely of Republicans with government experience in foreign policy. Their main objection was that Trump did not have the temperament to be the leader of the free world. After the Mar-a-Lago on Facebook incident, where dinner guests posted pictures of Trump and aides responding to North Korea’s missile tests (and selfies with the nuclear football carrier) was well as the chaotic first three weeks of his administration, about now is about when they have the misfortune of being able to say, “I told you so.”

What are the “Never Trump”ers doing now? I suspect most of them are sitting back wondering how long it will take for him to be impeached. Trump has an enemies list, and refuses to hire anyone who criticized him. This is one reason why the White House is floundering right now: they have excluded most of the people with the experience and talent they need. Keep in mind most of the “Never Trump”ers are not politicians, but high-level appointees and civil servants.

People tend not to appreciate just what it takes to run the United States. There are 300 people who work daily in the White House, and another 5,700 who work nearby directly for the White House. Then there are 19 Cabinet departments, each of which has a secretary and multiple under-secretaries, all of whom are appointed (and subject to Senate confirmation). Each of these departments has anywhere from tens of thousands to over a million (in the case of Defense) employees. In the senior leadership alone that is a lot of openings, and most of them require more than a little experience working in large bureaucracies. If you exclude 80% of the Republicans who have any experience in this area, there is not a lot of talent left to go around.

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