Trump: Pompeo was No. 1 at West Point, so the rules don’t apply to him

On Friday, Trump announced his intent to fire Steve Linick, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State, on the advice of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Firing Inspector Generals has become something of an MO for Trump; this is concerning because Inspector Generals were intended to be independent watchdogs. But that’s not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about this tweet:

Wow. The Biden team doesn’t even have to edit this. Just slap a “Women for Biden” logo on it & call it a day. https://t.co/fv9QWRvbvI

— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) May 19, 2020

If you haven’t been keeping up with every moment of the news—and frankly, who can?—you may be scratching your head right now. I know I was when I first saw this tweet. I did have one clue though—I recalled seeing that Linick, before Trump announced that he’s firing him, was investigating Pompeo for improperly having his aides walk his dog and do other personal and household tasks.

Public officials are not supposed to have their aides do personal tasks for them. This makes sense. It’s not what they’re hired for, after all, and it creates weird dynamics—imagine if your boss asked you to walk her dog? Unless you’re literally a dog walker, that’s not your job—but if you say no, you might end up on your boss’s bad side.

If you need a house cleaner, you hire a house cleaner. You don’t tell your office assistant to go to your house and wash your dishes. And it’s not just Pompeo who has gotten in trouble for this—politicians and public officials on both sides of the aisle are investigated for similar violations. This is why we have things like ethics investigations—to uncover abuses of power and stop them.

Earlier this week, Business Insider reported as follows:

Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general who was fired Friday, is thought to have been investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer run personal errands, according to multiple reports.

Two congressional officials told NBC News on Sunday that they were working to determine whether Linick was conducting additional investigations into Pompeo’s conduct. A Democratic aide told CNN that Pompeo was suspected of making a staffer run personal errands such as walking his dog and picking up his dry cleaning.

I am not privy to all of the details, and personally I don’t think Pompeo would recommend that Trump fire Linick over an investigation this seemingly limited in scope (although I could be wrong). I’ve been struck, though, by Trump’s response, because it makes it crystal clear that Trump doesn’t see this sort of behavior as an abuse of power at all—instead, he sees it as Pompeo’s due.

I think this says more about Trump than Pompeo.

In the tweet above, Trump was quoted saying that he’d “rather have [Pompeo] on the phone with some world leader than having him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there.” But that’s actually only a short quote from the much longer video included in the tweet, which I just transcribed. Trump, asked about the allegations against Pompeo, starts with this:

It doesn’t sound that important. I mean, you have a man that’s supposed to be — and he’s a brilliant guy, number one at West Point, number one at Harvard I believe, Harvard Law School or close, and — but he was number one at West Point, number one at Harvard Law School or very close to number one, and they’re bothered because he’s having somebody walk his dog, as you’re telling me, I didn’t know that, I didn’t hear that, I didn’t know about an investigation.

Pompeo did indeed graduate first in his class at West Point (I don’t know about his ranking at Harvard Law School). However, that is not relevant at all to the question of whether Pompeo abused his power over his staff by assigning them to do private chores for him. But note that Trump very much thinks that is relevant. So relevant!

This is how Trump’s world system works—if you have enough important sounding qualifications by your name (or in your bank account), you can do whatever you want. You’ve earned it! It’s your due! How dare someone tell Pompeo that there are rules and he has to follow them!

But back to Trump:

But this is what you get with the Democrats. Here’s a man supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major major countries, with weaponry like the world has never seen before, and the Democrats, and the Fake News Media, they’re interested in a man who is walking their dog, and maybe he’s busy, and maybe he’s negotiating with Kim Jong Un, okay, about nuclear weapons, so that he’d say please, can you walk my dog, would you mind walking my dog, I’m talking to Kim Jong Un, or I’m talking to President Xi about paying us for some of the damage they’ve caused to the world, and to us, please walk my dog — to who, a secret service person or somebody, right?

We get it! Pompeo has an important job!

Having an important job does not mean you get to abuse your power over your staff by ordering the public servants who work in your office in the state department to do personal tasks for you! Maybe it works that way in business, where Trump is from (I genuinely don’t know), but the salaries of staff who work the public service are paid by the taxpayers, and there are ethics and rules.

If Pompeo needs a personal assistant to hire tasks like dog walking and picking up dry cleaning, he can hire a personal assistant. Ivanka Trump has a personal assistant. Many people with jobs that keep them very busy have personal assistants. This isn’t about whether Pompeo should have to walk his dog himself. It’s about whether he can have his staff in the state department walk his dog.

But let’s return to Trump:

I don’t know. I think this country has a long way to go, the priorities are very screwed up.

How dare we have rules for rich and powerful people!

He’s a high quality person, Mike, he’s a very high quality, he’s a very brilliant guy, and now I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes, and you know what, I’d rather have him on the phone with some world leader than having him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there, or his kids aren’t there, you know — what are you telling me, it’s terrible! It’s so stupid, you know how stupid that sounds to the world?

Not … stupid.

Does Trump know that other countries also have anti-corruption laws? Oh wait, my bad, by “the world” Trump probably means Kim Jong Un and President Xi. On that level he’s right—the strongman dictators Trump so admires are probably not at all impressed by our ethics rules and anti-corruption laws. Let’s keep it like that. 

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