Susan Wright on the Right
Talk about a toxic mix of elitism and cronyism!
President Trump’s devoted worshipers like to talk about how he’s “draining the swamp,” but the facts remain he’s simply redecorating the swamp, with a lot of gilded columns and show pieces.
One of the things I ran into during the 2016 election season with Trump fans is this bizarre belief that he was some kind of blue collar hero, who didn’t have a wealthy daddy to send him to private schools and set him up in life early.
No, there are actually people out there (some of them leaders in the GOP) who harbor this fantasy of Donald Trump starting at the bottom, as a simple construction worker, and by the sweat of his brow, pulling himself up to be a multibillionaire and household name.
It’s not reality based. It’s easily disputed, for anyone willing to take 2 minutes to do a Google search, but they desperately need to believe that Trump really does understand the common man.
Then you get news like this report from ProPublica, about how Trump has made it possible for unelected, inexperienced – but rich – cronies to have their hands involved in the affairs of one of our most important national departments.
Specifically, that would be Veterans Affairs.
According to the ProPublica report, a small clique of Mar-a-Lago members and Trump pals stand as the unofficial board of directors, making suggestions and calling the shots for our nation’s veterans.
This is without any experience, either in running a government department, or in our military. Their only “qualification” is in being members of Trump’s golf club.
The ProPublica piece is stunning.
Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”
O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service “concierge” medical care.
More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The troika is led by Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, who is a longtime acquaintance of President Trump’s. The third member is a lawyer named Marc Sherman. None of them has ever served in the U.S. military or government.
Go back and read those last three paragraphs again.
When pressed, the three Trumpoteers attempted to wave off any concerns about their involvement in shaping policy for America’s veterans.
“At all times, we offered our help and advice on a voluntary basis, seeking nothing at all in return,” they said. “While we were always willing to share our thoughts, we did not make or implement any type of policy, possess any authority over agency decisions, or direct government officials to take any actions… To the extent anyone thought our role was anything other than that, we don’t believe it was the result of anything we said or did.”
VA spokesman Curt Cashour likewise downplayed the involvement of these three bored businessmen, looking to play with our vets like toy soldiers. He mentioned the broad range of input, but denied they had any direct influence over policy.
That’s the thing about this administration: They say one thing, but there’s always somebody willing to talk, and always documents to back up the reports that emerge.
But hundreds of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former administration officials tell a different story — of a previously unknown triumvirate that hovered over public servants without any transparency, accountability or oversight. The Mar-a-Lago Crowd spoke with VA officials daily, the documents show, reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions. They prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials travelled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views. “Everyone has to go down and kiss the ring,” a former administration official said.
That certainly sounds like a bit more than simply giving input, doesn’t it?
And why would that input even be necessary? How was this group chosen?
Rhetorical question. We know this was a Trump-orchestrated move, as he works to keep himself ingratiated with other wealthy businessmen. He’s allowing them to “dabble” in our government, because, as members of his private club, they’re entitled.
Trump is not an intelligent man, and even his illusion of wealth can be questioned.
He’s also a man with an intensely fragile ego, so he regularly speaks with Perlmutter, getting his input and approval. Whenever Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, reports are that Perlmutter is always nearby.
“On any veterans issue, the first person the president calls is Ike,” another former official said. Former administration officials say that VA leaders who were at odds with the Mar-A-Lago crowd were pushed out or passed over. Included, those officials say, were the secretary (whose ethical lapses also played a role), deputy secretary, chief of staff, acting under secretary for health, deputy under secretary for health, chief information officer, and the director of electronic health records modernization.
At times, Perlmutter, Moskowitz and Sherman have created headaches for VA officials because of their failure to follow government rules and processes. In other cases, they used their influence in ways that could benefit their private interests. They say they never sought or received any financial gain for their advice to the VA.
The arrangement is without parallel in modern presidential history. The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 provides a mechanism for agencies to consult panels of outside advisers, but such committees are subject to cost controls, public disclosure and government oversight. Other presidents have relied on unofficial“kitchen cabinets,” but never before have outside advisers been so specifically assigned to one agency. During the transition, Trump handed out advisory roles to several rich associates, but they’ve all since faded away. The Mar-a-Lago Crowd, however, has deepened its involvement in the VA.
It was Perlmutter who suggested David Shulkin to serve as VA secretary.
Shulkin, according to reports, demurred to Perlmutter, Moskowitz, and Sherman, thanking them for the opportunity to serve.
It came with a price.
It wasn’t long before the Mar-a-Lago Crowd wore out their welcome with Shulkin. They advised him on how to do his job even though they sometimes seemed to lack a basic understanding of it. Just after their first meeting, Moskowitz emailed Shulkin again to say, “Congratulations i[t] was unanimous.” Shulkin corrected him: “Bruce- this was not the confirmation vote- it was a committee vote- we still need a floor vote.”
Perlmutter, Moskowitz and Sherman acted like board members pounding a CEO to turn around a struggling company, a former administration official said. In email after email, officials sought approval from the trio: for an agenda Shulkin was about to present to Trump for a research effort on suicide prevention and for a plan to recruit experts from academic medical centers. “Everything needs to be run by them,” the first former official said, recalling the process. “They view themselves as making the decisions.”
Isn’t playing government fun?
The report goes on to describe how the trio would pound administration officials with demands to “hurry up,” and they seemed oblivious to the fact that within a government structure, decisions can’t be implemented on a dime.
In one instance, Perlmutter alerted Shulkin to what he called “another real-life example of the issues our great veterans are suffering with when trying to work with the VA.” The example came from Karen Donnelly, a real estate agent in Palm Beach who manages the tennis courts in the luxury community where Perlmutter lives. Donnelly’s son was having trouble accessing his military medical records. After a month of dead ends, Donnelly said she saw Perlmutter on the tennis court and, knowing his connection to Trump, asked him for help. Perlmutter told her to email him the story because he’s “trying to straighten things out” at the VA, she recalled. (Donnelly separately touched off a nasty legal dispute between Perlmutter and a neighbor, Canadian businessman Harold Peerenboom, who objected to her management of the tennis courts. In a lawsuit, Peerenboom accused Perlmutter of mounting a vicious hate mail campaign against him, which Perlmutter’s lawyer denied.)
Perlmutter forwarded Donnelly’s email to Shulkin, Moskowitz and Sherman. “I know we are making very good progress, but this is an excellent reminder that we are also still very far away from achieving our goals,” Perlmutter wrote.
Shulkin had to point out that if the problem was with military service records, then the VA wasn’t the right department. That would be with the Department of Defense.
Oops.
I suppose they’d have to go to someone with Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey club to get action with the Defense Department.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Because it’s a lot to digest, I’ll pick up again in a separate column.
It suffices to say, we have a president playing fast and loose with our government departments, giving preference to the rich and influential.
Draining the swamp?
Not hardly.
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