No room at the inn (In Hamburg)

[MineralMan]

20. I don't know the details, really, but Trump did fire everyone

working on the White House staff when he took office. Among those were very experienced people who handled all sorts of complicated arrangements, etc. For example, there is a White House Chief of Protocol, who advises the President and staff on how to behave when dealing with people from different cultures, and so forth. That post still has not been filled. I'm sure there has been a Travel Office in the White House that was once full of experts at arranging the details of all sorts of trips, including international trips. The head of that office would have made short work of booking in Hamburg, even on short notice. You can't book something like a presidential entourage without a lot of experience. I'm sure everyone in that office was canned, too.

The thing is that a lot of those White House staff people have worked for multiple administrations. They're not really political jobs, so experience is the thing they bring to the table. Trump just did a clean sweep of White House staffers, and then did not replace a lot of them. He came to the job knowing literally nothing about the job, so he didn't understand how important all of those experienced people really are.

So, Trump goes to Hamburg with no rooms arranged for him and his numerous staff people. At the last minute, accommodations were arranged, with the help of the German government but they're not ideal. Other countries' delegations have taken over entire hotels to handle their needs. Normally, our entourage would have done the same, but nobody did the arrangements until too late.

It's not just rooms, either. Security staff gets entire floors above and below the President's floor. Normally, an entire hotel is booked so enough space and enough security can be arranged. There were people in the White House who understood all that and who knew how to arrange it, even if they had to throw some weight around to bump some other national entourage. It's a difficult coordinated job, every time the President travels overseas.

The whole thing is a failure on the Trump administration's fault, for not retaining experienced people who already knew how to do all of that. Everyone was fired, and nobody knew how to hire qualified replacements. So, there they are in Hamburg, with some staff probably sleeping on the floor at the consulate building there, and the rest crammed into a too small building with the President's close party.

It's hilarious, really, but presents a real security risk in many ways.