While the path to four more years of a Trump presidency is all but impossible now, Trump’s political vectors will be embedded in thousands of hires to federal agencies controlled by Trump appointees, even as the President is attempting to reconfigure a number of his chosen allies in federal offices as “civil servants” and not officially as political appointees who are routinely replaced by a new administration. He has also attempted to reclassify true civil servants, especially bureaucrats who have opposed or resisted his edicts, into a new category of government workers who can be fired.
“The president signed an executive order [in October] creating a new class of federal worker; it encompasses career staff involved in ‘confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating.’ Such workers, now categorized as ‘Schedule F,’ have been stripped of job protections that previously covered most federal employees. As a result, they can be fired much more easily…
“More than creating a new bureaucratic classification, the move gives the president greater freedom to go after the so-called ‘deep state’ career civil servants that he said hamstrung his term in office. He ordered government agencies in October to review their employees and report back with lists of ‘Schedule F’ employees no later than Jan. 19, the eve of Inauguration Day.
“The Office of Management and Budget has completed its task, RealClearPolitics has learned. According to an internal memo, OMB Director Russ Vought has classified 88% of that agency’s workforce, 425 employees, as Schedule F.” RealClearPolitics.com, November 21st. Had Trump in fact won his reelection bid, his clear intention was to reconfigure the entire civil service in order to be able to fire anyone who remotely disagreed with him.
While that political ambition may be contained by the election results, it is clear that from now until January 20th, Trump can continue to wreak havoc with critical bureaucrats, which will challenge the new administration as it seeks to undo the damage. The Trump led pressure to lie and push a fake conspiracy theory that election was rigged against him was even too much for Trump’s own Attorney General. William Barr resigned on December 14th, just days before Trump’s departure from the White House. On that same day, the Electoral College certified the election results; Biden clearly won by a substantial margin. Was Barr going to be fired anyway for stating that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud? The world was watching, and what they were seeing was not pretty.
The overall loss of American global power and influence, based on our unilateral withdrawal from multiple international organizations, treaties and accords, our bully tactics with allies, frenemies and enemies alike and our jingoistic use of a racist slogan from the 1920s – American First – faces several hurdles to the restoration of our international stature. First, the world has seen how one rogue president can undo the pledges and policies that were build over decades. Who is going to trust us going forward, when over 70 million votes were cast to continue the Trump reign? What is the value of an American pledge or commitment anymore?
Second, as we have pulled back – everything from aid to favorable trading status to simple coordination and cooperation – Russian and Chinese diplomats have rushed in to create new structures and accords aimed at excluding the United States and replacing its position in global politics. Those new alliances are increasingly cemented with replacement treaties aimed at hobbling American power. Even our allies are creating new workaround financial alternatives to the American hegemony over global financial structures. We may even face a losing our status as the primary reserve currency. Our betrayal of forces that fought side-by-side with US troops (e.g., Kurdish forces against ISIS), our cutbacks in NATO participation and our cozying up to enemies of cherished allies have inflicted permanent damage to our international standing.
Domestically, the greatest enduring impact of Trumpism is the fact that a full quarter of all of our federal judges are now his appointees, including three of the six-person conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Even as these appointees can find no basis under the law to challenge the election results and designate Trump the victor, their impact on policies decisions will influence how and who we are for decades to come. Trump has purposely selected younger and ideologically conservative judges who, because of the lifetime appointment reality, will be here long after Trump is literally gone.
“‘These appointees to the bench serve life tenure and, as a result, they will be shaping jurisprudence in our country for the next two generations,’ said Leonard Leo, a conservative legal advocate and top adviser to the Trump administration on selecting judges… In an interview, Leo said Trump’s 229 appointees are largely ‘young,’ ‘extremely talented’ and ready to ‘enforce the structural limits on government power contained in our Constitution.’” NBC News, December 14th. As if that reality were not enough, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnel (R-KY), has made it clear that in the waning days of the Trump administration, he plans to confirm a number of the remaining Trump judicial appointments.
“On Friday [12/11], McConnell teed up a new round of votes on judicial nominees. The Senate [voted] Monday [12/14] on Thomas Kirsch, a 46-year-old U.S. attorney, to fill the seat vacated by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whom Republicans confirmed to the Supreme Court the week before the 2020 election… The move embodies the McConnell-era Senate — often a dead zone for legislative activity, but a well-oiled machine for confirming conservative judges, with Democrats all but powerless to stop it…
“McConnell paved the way for the Trump-era project by refusing to fill many vacancies during President Barack Obama’s last two years — including, most controversially, one to the Supreme Court.” NBC News. From reprioritizing religious choice, property rights and containing federal authority, these Trump judges will extend today’s republican doctrines for decades to come, hamstringing efforts to limit climate change, protect minority racial and gender-directed rights and expand social programs.
I’m Peter Dekom, and to the ghost of Christmas past, we now must add the ghost of a Trumpy future.
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