Subject: RE: WaPo: Rubin: What happened to the ‘best’ people for Trump?
From: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
To: "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>, "Berns, Jeremy" <[email-masked]>, Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 13:07:31 -0700

I’m fine with that. Mark or Luis?

From: Crystal, Andy
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 4:06 PM
To: Walker, Eric; Berns, Jeremy; Comm_D
Subject: RE: WaPo: Rubin: What happened to the ‘best’ people for Trump?

Pretty great all around, one flag here:

Between public servants who take themselves out of the running and qualified people dubbed to be insufficiently loyal and subservient to Trump, the quality of a Trump administration will make the Obama team look like superstars by comparison.

From: Walker, Eric
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 3:54 PM
To: Berns, Jeremy; Comm_D
Subject: RE: WaPo: Rubin: What happened to the ‘best’ people for Trump?

Wow.
I say we blast with subject line: “We don’t usually send out Jennifer Rubin’s posts, but…”

From: Berns, Jeremy
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 3:52 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: WaPo: Rubin: What happened to the ‘best’ people for Trump?

This is brutal
What happened to the ‘best’ people for Trump?<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/05/10/what-happened-to-the-best-people-for-trump/?postshare=2111462909337433&tid=ss_tw>
By Jennifer Rubin<http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jennifer-rubin> May 10 at 3:38 PM

Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump boasted that he would get “great” people, the “best” people to work for him. As the campaign wore on, it turned out the best people did not want to work for him. He came up with a hodgepodge of under-qualified or downright flaky foreign policy advisers.

The problem is that a great many qualified people do not want to work with him and certainly do not want to be his VP (e.g., South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Ohio Gov. John Kasich). Now we see just how troubling is his judgment in advisers.

Corey Lewandowski, not a lawyer but someone who was charged with battery (charges later were dropped) and sought to smear the accuser, is now going to oversee the VP selection process. Do we think Lewandoswki can pick out people who are respectful of others, have high standards and would contribute something other than “Yes, Mr. President” to the administration? Probably not.

Then there is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is overseeing the transition team. (Usually candidates wait at least until after the nomination.) That’s odd since Christie has never served in an administration (other than as a U.S. attorney), has picked fights with Congress, was tutored by foreign policy experts for months and then embraced a candidate who shared none of those positions, and managed to burn bridges with serious conservatives over his embrace of Trump. It’ll be fascinating to see how he figures out which sorts of people go with which jobs, let alone finds anyone to fill them.

And let’s not forget he tapped Steven Mnuchin (a Democratic money man, ex-Goldman Sachs employee and failed movie investor who skipped out before a bankruptcy filing) as his finance director. I suppose we should be thankful he is not the first pick for treasury secretary. (Oh, gosh, what if. . .)

Finally, there is Paul Manafort, former representative to the “Torturer’s Lobby” whose connections to Russia are so problematic it may complicate Trump’s national security briefing. (“Trump’s top adviser, Paul Manafort, has spent much of his recent career working for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, and doing complex deals for an oligarch with close ties to Putin. And while a Democratic senator has already charged Trump is not responsible enough to receive secret information, Manafort’s deep relationships with top pro-Russian figures raise special concerns.”) Surely Manafort is likely to be rewarded with a plum position if Trump wins. Secretary of state? National security adviser? One can only imagine.

This, you see, is one of the big problems with Trump’s policy promises, including court nominees (not just the Supreme Court but also lower courts). The people around him are not equipped to put in place an administration of quality people who can shape and implement policy or vet and recommend judges. Trump values loyalty above all, regardless of experience, competence or character. Imagine an entire administration full of Lewandowskis and Roger Stones. These people will have the power of the IRS, the Justice Department, countless regulatory agencies and, of course, the armed forces. Between public servants who take themselves out of the running and qualified people dubbed to be insufficiently loyal and subservient to Trump, the quality of a Trump administration will make the Obama team look like superstars by comparison.

It is, quite frankly, a recipe for corruption and self-dealing as Trump and his minions use the levers of government to reward friends and punish enemies. Some of the worst nominees will get weeded out by Congress, but many others will get rubber stamped. The White House staff, of course, is not subject to congressional confirmation (which is an excellent reason to chop it down to size).

If one selects a president who is intellectually and unethically unfit, you’re practically guaranteeing the vast majority of his staff and appointments will be so as well. Quality attracts quality, and the reverse is true as well.