Is Trump draining the swamp – or is the water rising?
Donald Trump first uttered the rallying cry “drain the swamp!” just three weeks before the 2016 election. Promising to “make our government honest once again,” Candidate Trump unveiled a five-point proposal aimed at reining in the influence of lobbyists.
“Drain the swamp!” quickly became one of Mr. Trump's central campaign promises – and one of the most popular chants at his rallies.
Today, experts on government ethics say, President Trump is presiding over one of the most ethically challenged administrations in modern history, especially this early on. Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is only the latest example of a cabinet member operating under a storm cloud. Most recently, Mr. Pruitt has been accused of an improper housing set-up connected to an energy lobbyist, unconventional pay raises to favored political appointees, and reassignment or demotion of senior staff who questioned his spending. His job reportedly hangs in the balance, amid mixed signals from Trump and his spokespeople.
Other Trump cabinet members have already gotten the heave-ho, after questionable spending came to light. Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, fired last week, had faced criticism over travel expenses for a trip to Europe, including airfare for his wife, which he says he repaid. Mr. Shulkin, who had also served as an under secretary in the Obama administration, maintains he was let go because he resisted pressure from the Trump White House to privatize veterans’ health care.
All presidents deal to some extent with alleged wrongdoing by senior appointees, but “I have never seen anything like this,” says Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.
Why is this happening, especially under an outsider president who swooped into Washington promising to change the way the capital operates?
One answer may center on what, exactly, Trump meant by “drain the swamp.”
FOCUS ON DEREGULATION
“We thought he was saying, ‘Hey, there’s going to be a new sheriff in town,’ and that he would do things differently with the revolving door [between government service and lobbying] and cleaning up ethics laws and regulations,” says Mr. Amey.
But so far, draining the swamp has been more about deregulation and shrinking the federal workforce, and less about strengthening or even adhering to the norms and rules of ethical behavior for government officials. Trump’s attacks on the media and on entrenched members of Congress – of both parties – have also tended to label them as members of the “swamp.”
Of the proposals in Trump’s original five-point plan, only one is fully in place: an executive order barring executive branch officials from lobbying for foreign governments or parties after they leave the administration.
The president’s own behavior has been important in setting the tone for his team, political analysts say.
Trump has yet to release his tax returns, defying the customary practice of modern presidents. He faces multiple lawsuits over his businesses and whether the income he derives from them violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which forbids the receipt of gifts from foreign countries. A federal judge ruled last week that one of the lawsuits can proceed. Trump’s business dealings are also under scrutiny as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the president colluded with the Russians or engaged in obstruction of justice.
Besides Pruitt and Shulkin, multiple Trump cabinet secretaries have found themselves in hot water: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have all faced questions about their use of taxpayer money. In addition, Trump’s first secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, was fired after just seven months on the job, following reports that he had spent $1 million in federal funds on private jet travel.
Not that members of the federal bureaucracy are above reproach. Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired last month after the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility found he had leaked to the media and “lacked candor” under oath, charges he denies.
QUESTION OF EXPERIENCE
But the swarm of ethics allegations facing Trump’s team is unusual. It may well reflect the fact that Trump is new to public service and came into office under his own ethical cloud, says Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma who served in Congress from 1977 to 1993, including a stint in the leadership.
“I think some of [Trump’s appointees] came in with a sense of, ‘We’re now the bosses, and we can get away with whatever,’ ” says Mr. Edwards, now a vice president at the Aspen Institute and author of the book “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans.”
Like Trump, some appointees entered the cabinet with no prior experience in public office. Secretary Carson, at HUD, was a renowned surgeon, and ran briefly for president in 2016, before becoming a prominent defender of Trump and then a cabinet secretary. The purchase of a $31,000 dining set for Carson’s HUD office set off an uproar last month; he has testified that he was not involved in the purchase, and canceled it.
Secretary Mnuchin, a former investment banker and film producer, faced criticism last fall when the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General found that seven flights he had taken on military aircraft had cost the federal government more than $800,000. The report stated that no laws were broken, but criticized the use of federal funds all the same.
But other Trump appointees came to the administration with extensive experience in government, either as members of Congress or in state government. All have previous experience working under governmental ethics rules. Before coming to Washington, Pruitt was attorney general of Oklahoma and before that, a state senator.
KIND WORDS FOR PRUITT, BUT ...
Both Carson and Mnuchin seem to have weathered their storms. But Pruitt may not. Trump still praises him publicly – he’s doing a “great job,” the president tweeted on Friday – but such kind words are no guarantee of job security. According to news reports, chief of staff John Kelly advised Trump last week to fire Pruitt, though Trump wasn't ready to let him go at that point. Friday morning, Trump and Pruitt met.
The dilemma for Trump is that, as head of the EPA, Pruitt is doing exactly what the president wants – rolling back environmental regulations that he says have been holding back economic growth. Three Republican members of the House have called for Pruitt’s resignation. But prominent conservatives have defended him, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Senator Paul tweeted Thursday that Pruitt is “likely the bravest and most conservative member of Trump’s cabinet” and is needed to help Trump “drain the regulatory swamp.” Senator Cruz, in a tweet, blamed “Obama and his media cronies” for wanting to drive Pruitt out.
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh opened his show Thursday with a full-throated defense of Pruitt, blaming the liberal “deep state” for attacking the embattled EPA administrator. Mr. Limbaugh, with millions of listeners, has broad power to influence public discourse among Trump supporters.
Other conservatives speak of a “witch hunt” against Pruitt – the same language Trump uses when speaking of the Mueller investigation.
“The ‘witch hunt’ meme comes from the top, and is applied to anyone who disagrees with the president,” says James Pfiffner, professor of public policy at George Mason University. “Instead of confronting the issue, or arguing against the allegations, they resort to name calling. It is very sad.”
llegal Aliens Climb Border Wall into U.S. to Taunt Trump
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/04/07/illegal-aliens-climb-border-wall-u-s-taunt-trump/
Four illegal aliens climbed the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, Friday to taunt President Trump’s tough-on-immigration stance.
The Daily Mail reported that one migrant, with the help of three other men, leaped over the border wall and ran into U.S. territory in less than two minutes.
“He couldn’t get over! He was taking forever,” one of the men who helped the migrant told AFP, adding that he has seen others climb the 20-foot wall in one minute.
The Mexican man then ran off towards a group of houses before U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers could spot him.
The actions of these illegal aliens come after Trump directed the Defense Department to send thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to ramp up border security.
Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday directing Defense Secretary James Mattis to “request use of National Guard personnel to assist” with the Department of Homeland Security’s existing efforts to secure the border.
The president’s tough-on-immigration policy has prompted the organizers of a caravan of more than 1,500 Central American migrants traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. border to request refugee status from the U.S. to call off their group expedition.
April 6, 2018
Trump deploying token border force to fool core supporters
By Ed Straker
When President Trump said he was deploying the military to our southern border, I thought, "Finally!" Congress has blocked Trump's attempts to build a border wall and hire more border guards, but President Trump has found a unilateral action he can take to finally secure the border!
If only.
It turns out that President Trump is talking about deploying only between 2,000 and 4,000 National Guardsmen to the border. That's a tiny token force. How do we know this?
Consider that there are about 18,000 Border Patrol agents at our southern border. In light of that, an increase of only about 3,000 is tiny.
Furthermore, it's been tried before.
Past presidents, including George W. Bush and even Barack Obama, have sent guardsmen to the border. In "Operation Jump Start," President Bush sent 6,000 troops to the border – twice as many as our great presidente is proposing right now!
But even Bush's 6,000 troops were unable to secure the border:
The Administration calls their deployment a success, citing a 24% reduction in illegal entrant arrests during the course of the mission. But what does that 24% reduction really say? Of course no one knows for sure, but up to a million illegal aliens are estimated to infiltrate the U.S. each year across the southern border. So with 6,000 Guardsmen in place, only 760,000 illegal aliens successfully infiltrated the United States.Let's review. We deployed the National Guard to secure the southern border against illegal entry. As many as three-quarters of a million unidentified foreign nationals – five times our military deployment in Iraq – got through anyway.That's not a success. That's a colossal failure, unless you count photo ops of the National Guard on the border as the real mission.
So Bush's 6,000 troops couldn't secure the border; but Trump expects to the same with half that number.
Why doesn't Trump draw on the necessary numbers to secure the border? The troops are there to be drawn on; the president is not limited to calling up troops from border states to guard the southern border. And President Trump certainly has the power to call up 36,000 national guardsmen.
But for some reason, President Trump is calling up a fraction of the number President Bush called up.
The only explanation I can think of is that Trump is not serious about securing the border and is taking this action to shore up his political standing with his core supporters.
President Trump is embarrassed that conservative supporters like Anne Coulter have called him out for signing a spending bill that, although funding abortion, Obamacare, and other Democratic priorities, offered him only 33 miles of new fencing, no border wall money, and virtually no money for additional border guards.
This gesture is meant to placate President Trump's supporters, who will see the headlines showing that President Trump is sending the military to the border but won't be curious enough to find out exactly how many soldiers he is sending.
For me, this is the final proof I need to be convinced that President Trump is not serious about dealing with illegal immigration or securing our southern border.
o The president agreed to end DACA but called on Congress to reinstate it legislatively.
o The president called for amnesty for at least 1.8 million illegal aliens, putting him to the left of Barack Obama.
o The Obama-era holdover running ICE is arresting illegals at a somewhat faster pace but also conducting "show raids" where businesses are warned in advance and arrests are few to none.
o The president signed legislation outlawing his border wall and providing money for only 33 miles of fencing for a 2,000-mile border.
And by the way, these guardsmen Trump is calling up? They will be totally unarmed and unable to detain a single illegal without the help of the border patrol. If drug-smugglers fire at them, they will be helpless to defend themselves. Good thinking, President Trump!
Actions have consequences. So do elections. Republicans will be demoralized from turning out for the 2018 elections because Congress hasn't moved to secure our borders and the president hasn't fought for it (remember the veto, anyone?). President Trump is positioning himself to be a one-term president by his failure to act in any significant way to secure the border or deal with illegal immigration.
Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.\
50,308 Stopped at Mexican Border Last Month, Up 203% From March '17
By Susan Jones | April 5, 2018 | 7:48 AM EDT
(CNSNews.com) - More than fifty thousand people -- 50,308 -- were either apprehended or deemed inadmissible at the Southwest border last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Wednesday. It's the highest monthly total of the Trump presidency.
The 50,308 apprehended/inadmissibles in March is a 37 percent increase from the 36,695 counted in February, but a whopping 203 percent increase from March 2017's 16,588.
CBP said the number of family units increased by 49 percent from February to March, and the number of unaccompanied children increased by 41 percent compared to February.
"The traffickers and smugglers know that, if you arrive with a family, under our current legal and court system, you have a much better chance of being released into the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the White House press briefing on Wednesday. "We have seen the smugglers advertise this as an enticement. And we have seen traffickers, unfortunately, fraudulently use children to gain entry into our country."
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, a senior administration official, speaking on background, noted that in April 2017, the number of apprehended/inadmissibles dropped to a historic low of 15,766.
"We are no longer at that point," the official said. "The numbers we'll be releasing for March...will indicate a staggering increase from last year. And they clearly emphasize the need for additional actions."
According to CBP, last month, 37,393 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry on the Southwest border, compared with 26,662 in February and 25,978 in Janury.
Another 12,915 people were deemed inadmissible at ports of entry on the Southwest border last month, compared with 10,021 in February, and 9,839 in January.
Looking at annual totals, CBP said in Fiscal Year 2017, USBP apprehended 303,916 individuals along the Southwest Border, compared with 408,870 in FY16; 331,333 in FY15; and 479,371 in FY14.
In FY 2017, 111,275 individuals were deemed inadmissible compared to 150,825 in FY16; 114,486 in FY15; and 90,601 in FY14.
President Trump on Wednesday authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to the Southwest border to support the Border Patrol in halting illegal immigration.
"Given the importance of secure borders to our national security, the National Guard, in coordination with governors, will remain in a support role until Congress takes the action necessary to close the loopholes undermining our border security efforts, including ending the practice of Catch and Release," the announcement said.
The Trump White House noted that President Barack Obama sent National Guard trooops to the border in 2012, and President George W. Bush did so as well during his term.
The announcement said Trump is taking action "because congressional Democrats have obstructed efforts to secure our border."
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