SAUNDERS: Team Trump 2.0 far less likely to say, ‘You’re fired’

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump is a better boss the second time around.

You can see it in his staffing. Trump is putting the right people in top jobs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is flexing his foreign policy chops. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is selling Trump’s policies to Wall Street and Main Street. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy isn’t trying to paper over problems on American roads and in the skies. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is taking on the education bureaucracy.

The first year of Trump’s first term was chaotic: The turnover of his “A-Team” hit 35 percent, according to an analysis by Brookings Institution visiting fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas.

Former President Barack Obama’s first year turnover was 9 percent; according to Tenpas, the closest modern predecessor to Trump was Ronald Reagan with 17 percent turnover in his first year.

Given that Trump had never served in public office until he was elected president, hiccups were predictable.

In that first year Trump spit out his first chief of staff (Reince Priebus), press secretary (Sean Spicer) and national security adviser (Michael Flynn).

Tenpas has a term for such departures: RUP, for “resigned under pressure.”

As you look at Trump’s picks this go-round, you see how his four years in the wilderness paid off, and with Susie Wiles serving as chief of staff, a stability you didn’t see in 2017.

There has been “no publicly announced firing” among senior staff in the Executive Office of the President, Tenpas told me.

Trump’s first second-term national security adviser, (Michael Waltz) was caught adding a journalist to a Signal chat group that discussed plans for a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen. But rather than outright firing Waltz, Trump moved the former Army Special Forces officer to the United Nations, where he serves U.S. ambassador.

Waltz’s replacement? Rubio, who is acting national security adviser and the Archivist of the United States. Trump is “double and triple hatting people,” is how Tenpas put it. “When one of them leaves, he likes to hire from within.”

Also, Tenpas wrote, “The share of women and non-whites holding the most senior government positions is the lowest of the past four administrations.”

While I see the lesser turnover as a sign that Trump has seasoned, Tenpas credits the administration’s “far more intense focus on loyalty.”

When Trump first became president, he had never served in office, so he didn’t have a stable of long-term operatives. At times it seemed Trump picked some top staff and Cabinet members for their news (and entertainment) value. Remember Secretary of State Rex Tillerson? Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had recommended the former CEO of ExxonMobil.

A newbie president and a newbie secretary of state. What could go wrong? In March 2018, Trump announced he was firing Tillerson on Twitter.

“Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!” Trump posted. “Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!”

The most theatrical firing of 2017 came when then-FBI Director James Comey learned he was unemployed during a recruitment event in Los Angeles. Awkward.

Nearly a year into Trump’s second term, America has not witnessed a similar public shaming/firing. And some Trump picks — most notably Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth — don’t exactly have the heavyweight personas you would expect for their positions.

Trump should have put them on Mediterranean or Baltic Avenue, but somehow they landed on Park Avenue and Boardwalk.

Follow @debrajsaunders on X.