On Saturday, Donald Trump announced that he intended to nominate Chad Chronister, a local sheriff in Florida, to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration. On Tuesday, Chronister quit, claiming “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in.”
The Wall Street Journal apparently ran a headline that read, “Trump’s DEA Pick Pulls Out In Latest Setback.” The president-elect saw this and was not at all pleased. A message published to his social media platform read in part:
[Chronister] didn’t pull out, I pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters. But, more importantly, what’s my “latest” setback???
Right off the bat, it seemed odd that the Republican thought it’d be a good idea to publicly discredit his own ally’s official version of events. It was also amusing to see Trump effectively admit that he didn’t bother to vet Chronister before choosing him to lead an important federal agency. (Two minutes on Google would’ve told the president-elect and his team about the sheriff’s pandemic-era record.)
But what stood out as especially notable about Trump’s online missive was his discomfort with the idea that this DEA fiasco represented his “latest” setback. The comment suggests that, as far as the president-elect is concerned, his transition is going quite well.
It really isn’t.
The Matt Gaetz debacle looms large, of course, but it’s not the only evidence of a shambolic pre-inaugural process. Trump’s choice for attorney general walked away after eight days, and his choice for the DEA exited after three. The Republican announced last month that William McGinley would serve as the next White House counsel, and four weeks later, Trump changed his mind, demoted McGinley and replaced him with David Warrington.
Meanwhile, the Republican has chosen highly controversial and manifestly unqualified people for a variety of powerful positions — the Pentagon, HHS, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), etc. — and it’s an open question as to whether they’ll make it through the Senate confirmation process.
What’s more, the problem extends well beyond mystifying personnel failures. Since Election Day, Trump has also threatened punishing tariffs against the nation’s largest trading partners, only to quietly back off in response to developments that were not at all real.
And did I mention that the president-elect made some weird jokes about Canada becoming the 51st state to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? Because that happened, too.
A Semafor report summarized, “Donald Trump’s second transition was supposed to be different than the first, designed to be ‘orderly’ by advisers who have more eager congressional Republican allies this time around. Yet the consistent chaos and confusion that defined Trump’s first administration are already descending on Washington.”
Part of what makes this notable is what we’re learning about the president-elect’s tragically flawed judgment and the degree to which it has not improved since he exited the White House in defeat four years ago.
But I’m also struck by the aforementioned online missive and his incredulity at the idea that his DEA failure somehow represents his “latest” setback. The phrasing left little doubt Trump is not only failing, he also hasn’t noticed that he’s failing.