Trump Knocks Out Independence - Van Horne
Willard Van Horne Ph.D. - Guest MINDSETTER™
Trump Knocks Out Independence - Van Horne
The new law was not a partisan affair. It enjoyed overwhelming support in 1978, passing unanimously in the Senate, and by a 388-6 margin in the House. The IGs were charged with conducting agency oversight and providing whistleblowers a channel to report fraud, abuse, waste and misconduct. Their independence and non-partisan expertise were regarded as critical to effective government oversight. Amendments to the original law tightened the screws further so that: a) firings or transfers of IGs had to be case-specific, requiring the President to provide a written “substantive rationale” in each case ; b) a 30-day notification before termination was also required (to ensure a stable transition); and c) appointees were to be selected based on integrity and demonstrated ability, not political partisanship.
In these early-stage actions, Trump has stayed true to form. He is deliberately vindictive, intentionally law-breaking, a leader committed to decommissioning any and all accountability mechanisms. The IG firings, for example, were deliberately cruel, conveying not a scintilla of empathy for targeted employees. They were effectuated via a 10 P.M. email “dump” after work hours by Trump’s new Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). No warning. No phone call. No personally signed letter. No termination interview. Nada. Would you really run a company this way? Certainly not - unless your intent was to instill fear, destroy IG organizational morale and severely damage future recruitment prospects.
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Trump’s IG firings as executed were also lawbreaking in fact and in intent. The amendments to the original Inspector General Act in 2022, as noted, were precisely designed to require substantive, case-specific reasons for each firing. So, the explanation advanced by Trump’s new OPM director, Sergio Gor, that these firings en masse reflect “changing priorities,” do not cut statutory mustard. In addition, a 30-day termination period was required by statute. So, both provisions were illegally broken by President Trump. Period.
Without question, however, the most eye-opening accountability purge by Trump involved the dissolution of the National Security Council’s’ Pandemic Response Directorate (May, 2018). This action was taken in the teeth of a Coronavirus pandemic that ultimately killed over 1,219,000 American citizens (as of file-closure dates of April 2024). Indeed, according to the COVID dashboard maintained at John Hopkins University, although the United States represented just 4% of the world’s population, its recorded COVID deaths accounted for roughly 20% of the mortalities worldwide. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, then Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted before Congress on March 11, 2020, “I would say we worked very well with that office (viz. The Pandemic Response Directorate). It would be nice if that office was still there.”
Sadly, as noted by Forbes in a February 11, 2020, newsletter. “As the coronavirus continues to spread, President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget calls for drastic cuts to funding for the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization that critics say could prevent preparedness for a pandemic at home.” And, when Trump released his proposed 2021 budget, it included a 16% cut to the CDC’s budget and a 10% overall reduction to the Department of Health and Human Services’ funding.
In short, Trump’s flight from accountability has been consistently stunning. His road is littered with cannibalized and demoralized accountability institutions, who “victimized” him unfairly. He understands perfectly well that when his transformation of our government is complete – we will have morphed into a premier example of the banana republics he professes to despise. At this rate, it won’t take long.
Willard Van Horne Ph.D. is a retired sociologist, and former Director of Research for the New York State Education Department who is now living in Swansea, Mass.