In Trump's Washington, the rogue actors are the real players
and the experts are increasingly irrelevant
Two years ago, President Trump shared a version of his foreign policy philosophy with a Fox News interviewer who asked about widespread vacancies at the State Department.
Im the only one that matters, the president said.
Dozens of hours of impeachment testimony over the past two months have revealed the true import of Trumps boast. When he first took office, most assumed the new president would adapt, perhaps against his will, to the ways of Washington, its bureaucratic processes and legions of subject matter experts.
Instead, the president has turned the U.S. government into a version of the Trump Organization, full of wheeler-dealers inside and outside the official ranks who exist to do his political bidding. In this version of Trumps Washington, the rogue actors are the real players and the traditional professional class in the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon are largely irrelevant.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/in-trumps-washington-the-rogue-actors-are-the-real-players--and-the-experts-are-increasingly-irrelevant/2019/11/23/2d88edca-0d48-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1&utm_campaign=first_reads&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter