The threat of a pandemic puts the costs of Trump’s misbehavior front and center. In times of potential crisis, the American people should be certain that their government provides accurate information about issues of public safety, hires the best people to perform critical tasks and allows those people to do their jobs without political pressure or intervention.
Trump has rejected those values time and again. It’s no surprise that the president has viewed the emerging coronavirus pandemic through the lens of what would damage or benefit him politically. Trump has repeatedly made statements that are demonstrably untrue. At a campaign rally Friday, he suggested the coronavirus was a “hoax” manufactured by his political opponents. Earlier, he contradicted officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who described the spread of the coronavirus to the United States as inevitable.
This is not the first time the president has skewed facts to benefit his own political and personal interests. To cite just one relevant example, last summer, as Americans in several Southern states were preparing for Hurricane Dorian’s landfall, the president erroneously tweeted that the storm also would hit Alabama. When news outlets and the local National Weather Service (NWS) identified the error, Trump repeated his claim, using a doctored map to suggest that he was right all along. The president’s efforts to cover for his errant tweet not only forced the Birmingham NWS office to quell panic among residents but also may have violated federal laws barring the alteration of official government weather forecasts.
The president’s practice of hiring loyalists and industry insiders, while ignoring qualifications and ethical red flags, makes it fair to question whether health agency posts will be filled by experts or sycophants. Public reports indicate that the administration has been plagued by “vacancies across agencies and a lack of vetting of several top officials.” The vacancies in government positions that could help facilitate the administration’s response to coronavirus have raised particular concerns among public health experts and on Capitol Hill. Given the president’s penchant for rewarding unqualified loyalists and donors with high-ranking positions, this should not be surprising.
On the day of Trump’s inauguration, the Justice Department overruled long-standing executive branch guidance that it was illegal for a president to hire relatives for White House jobs. This stunning reversal paved the way for Trump to install his daughter and son-in-law in senior White House roles. In June, when a Trump appointee recommended senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway be fired for repeated violations of the Hatch Act, the president dismissed the idea out of hand. Conway remains in her position. In February, Trump rehired John McEntee, previously fired because of security clearance issues and allegations of financial crimes, to lead the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, reportedly to ensure that political appointees remain loyal to the president. One of McEntee’s first hires for the personnel office was a 23-year-old Trump devotee, who previously held posts at two federal agencies despite not having a college degree.
The president’s pattern of retaliation and intimidation against federal employees will make it difficult to fill critical vacancies at health agencies and to ensure the dissemination of accurate information to leadership. Since Trump’s impeachment acquittal, he has sought to purge whistleblowers and others who reported corruption to Congress from his administration. Trump orchestrated the removal not only of impeachment witnesses Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, but also Vindman’s brother, from their posts. Trump also reportedly directed his personnel director to “focus on rooting out disloyal officials.” Employees who remain in government risk having their decisions overruled by political appointees, similarly to what we saw when Attorney General William P. Barr lowered the Justice Department sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone after the president lashed out on Twitter about the proposed sentence. A Department of Health and Human Services whistleblower has alleged that she faced retaliation for reporting that American health workers were sent to assist coronavirus victims without proper training or equipment.
Trump’s insistence in interfering in agency decisions could easily cause problems for health officials struggling to provide the public with information about the coronavirus, just as his meddling has harmed the work of independent prosecutors at the Justice Department, intelligence officials, meteorologists at NWS or scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Health officials, fearing retribution from the White House, may hesitate to provide unvarnished information if it contradicts the president or his appointees’ statements about a public health crisis. The White House has mandated that the vice president’s office control all coronavirus messaging from government health officials, including Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was barred from making public statements about the pandemic without clearance.
Conflicts of interest, whistleblower retaliation, misuse of agencies for personal gain and other ethics abuses should matter to all Americans. As the threat of the coronavirus mounts, this administration’s response to the crisis demonstrates that government ethics rules and related laws are not just about fighting corruption: They are about promoting the efficiency of and the trust in our government to work on behalf of the public. Corruption has become the defining trait of the Trump administration. Now, as Trump attempts to address a global health crisis, the costs of his corruption are coming into full view.
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