The Anti-Public Administration Presidency: The Damage Trump Has Wrought

• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Charles T. Goodsell
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074019862876
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019862876

American Review of Public Administration

2019, Vol. 49(8) 871 –883

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074019862876

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Article

The premise of this article is that Donald J. Trump is not fit

to hold the office of the President of the United States. His

propensity to lie, boast, stay uninformed, and commit to

demagogic populism is unacceptable. His domestic policies

are grounded in fear and anger while his foreign policies

diminish America’s role in the world.

The purpose of this article is not to add to these condem-

nations. Instead, it is to point out how his presidency has

significantly violated the processes, institutions, and values

of American public administration at the national level. This

damage, while not readily visible to the citizenry, must be of

serious concern to all who view democratic governance as

requiring the highest possible professional standards of

administrative conduct. By referring to Trump’s assaults as

“anti-public administration,” I consider his actions either as

deliberate or borne of profound ignorance or indifference.

I advance the argument under six headings: The Workforce,

The Policy Process, Effects on Mission, Agency Integrity,

Program Integrity, and the Worth of Science.

The methodology of the study has been to draw on an

archive of contemporary newspaper clippings I have built

during Trump’s presidency, collected mainly from the

Washington Post. A few other sources supplement this mate-

rial. For citations see References.

The Workforce

Trump is no friend of the public service and, if one is to take

seriously the “deep state” phrase and “drain the swamp” cry,

it is one of his many enemies.

Freezing New Hires

The easiest way to disable a federal government civilian

workforce of two million men and women is to freeze new

hires. Trump seized this opportunity 3 days after his inaugu-

ration and repeated it later in his tenure. Needing no congres-

sional action, it is accomplished with the stroke of a pen and

is designed to please conservatives. What it does is knock

random holes in the staffs of programs as employees retire,

leave early, or quit out of disgust. They cannot be replaced

without a special waiver. As a result, indispensible experi-

enced professionals disappear without being replaced. As an

example, the first freeze caused the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC) to be stuck with nearly 700

vacancies within a few months (Sun, 2017).

Delayed Appointments

A similarly quiet but far-reaching blow to the bureaucracy

was also underway. This is to delay political appointments

other than at the cabinet level. These include approximately

1,200 positions subject to Senate confirmation, such as under

secretaries, assistant secretaries, deputy secretaries, general

counsels, and bureau heads. Roughly half of these people are

absolutely critical to running the government. Without them,

cabinet secretaries are isolated from the civil service and the

civil servants are adrift from the new administration. If delay

keeps on, policies are made without adequate information

and agencies enter a twilight zone of stagnation.

Precisely such a condition unfolded. Trump ignored lists

of potential nominees that had been prepared by Chris

Christie during the transition period between election and

inauguration. Instead, the new president told Steve Bannon,

Jared Kushner, and Reince Priebus to join forces and make

862876ARPXXX10.1177/0275074019862876The American Review of Public AdministrationGoodsell

research-article2019

1Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

Corresponding Author:

Charles T. Goodsell, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA.

Email: goodsell@vt.edu

The Anti-Public Administration Presidency:

The Damage Trump Has Wrought

Charles T. Goodsell1

Abstract

President Trump and his Administration have gravely damaged the institutions and values of American public administration.

Harm has been done to the federal workforce, the policymaking process, the integrity of missions, agencies and programs,

and the government’s relation to science.

Keywords

Trump presidency, federal bureaucracy, administrative damage