As nominees for a cabinet position prepare for the Senate confirmation process, it’s common practice for them to have an experienced point person to help serve as a guide. When Donald Trump announced that John Ratcliffe would be his choice to lead the CIA, for example, Michael Allen, a longtime Republican national security expert, joined Ratcliffe’s team.
That partnership, however, did not last: Allen was recently ousted, not because of his job performance but reportedly because Trump’s operation learned that Allen had held a campaign fundraiser for Liz Cheney — and for the president-elect’s team, that was apparently a dealbreaker.
Around the same time, Trump was weighing a position for Republican lawyer William Levi, who was the subject of some skepticism among people close to the president-elect. In the first Trump administration, The New York Times reported, Levi “served as the chief of staff to Attorney General William P. Barr, who is now viewed as a ‘traitor’ by Mr. Trump for refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.”
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added, “[Levi’s] bid for a permanent position has been stymied by Mr. Trump’s advisers who are vetting personnel for loyalty.”
The developments left many observers with the impression that Trump and his team had effectively drawn up an intraparty blacklist of sorts, filled with Republicans who are held in such low regard that those who worked with them are necessarily tarnished in the eyes of the president-elect.
It’s against this backdrop that Trump has abandoned all subtlety on the point. The Hill reported:
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President-elect Trump on Wednesday said he would not consider individuals affiliated with a host of Republican rivals and critics for jobs in his incoming administration, singling out former Vice President Mike Pence, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), among others.
In an item published to his social media platform, the incoming president wrote that it would “save time, money, and effort” if people agreed not to “send, or recommend to us, people who worked with, or are endorsed by” Americans for Prosperity, former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, Haley, Pence, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley or either of his first-term defense secretaries, James Mattis and Mark Esper.
For context, many of these individuals were listed with juvenile taunts and nicknames. (Bolton was described as “dumb as a rock”; Haley was labeled “birdbrain”; Liz Cheney was called a “psycho”; Trump questioned whether Milley was an actual general, etc.)
The president-elect didn’t just say that these individuals were not welcome in his administration, he added that anyone who “worked with” them will be blocked from executive branch employment, too.
It reflects a rather twisted approach to partisan loyalty: If you worked with Republicans that Trump tapped for powerful positions, you need not apply for positions on Trump’s incoming team. It doesn’t matter if you’re qualified. It doesn’t matter if you’re experienced. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lifelong Republican who backed Trump’s candidacy. It doesn’t matter if Americans would benefit from your public service. What matters is whether you’re associated with a Republican whom Trump considers insufficiently loyal to him personally.
There’s never been a presidential public statement quite like this one.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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