TRUMP SHOWS HIS INCOMPETENCE AS THE U.S. CHIEF EXECUTIVE

…This is the Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen

Trump blowup at his HSA Secretary lasted 30+ minutes as his face reddened and he raised his voice.

Once again,”President Bully” is showing his real self and it’s just more proof that he has no clue how to act in managing his direct-report personnel.  It is definitely one of the reasons for the revolving door in and out at the current Trump administration.

Having been an executive in a large organization, it is totally inappropriate to berate a staff person in front of other peer personnel as President Trump did to his Homeland Security (HSA) Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen.  And this is especially true for a president where every word that is uttered in the White House will eventually hit the national reporters and all those cable TV networks.

The berating of the HSA secretary by Trump went on so long that many of those present began fidgeting in their seats and showing very grim expressions.  This is according to multiple White House aides.  Eventually, the topic finally moved on to health care, causing relief to many in the room. 

The story is that the secretary afterwards wrote a letter of resignation, but since then her colleagues have denied reports that she had threatened to quit.

The Trump blowup lasted more than 30 minutes as Trump’s face reddened and as he raised his voice multiple times, saying Nielsen needed to “close down the border”.   “Why don’t you have solutions? How is this still happening?” he said, adding later, “We need to shut it down. We’re closed.”

What is so ridiculous is that this was not just a raised-voice rant to just a small group of cabinet personnel.   The president’s eruption was witnessed by all the Cabinet members, plus a number of senior White House officials including special counselor, Kellyanne Conway, advisers/ family members, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, immigration adviser, Stephen Miller and the new chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

Any competent manager knows that you don’t do this kind of attack on one of your key managers in front of other peers.  This should have been in a closed meeting with perhaps the Chief of Staff present, and/or someone from the White House personnel office.

As it turned out, Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was Nielsen’s top support person and he was the one that had recommended her to Trump for the Homeland Security job.  He was also present at the meeting.

In addition, there should have been specific discussions for what the issues were that the secretary is having to deal with at the border.  As it was, there was a statement from the Atty. General, Jeff Sessions, who defended her, saying the administration was looking for new ways to deter illegal crossings.

But the way the president has been targeting the Atty. General for recusing himself from the Russian investigation, Sessions was probably making the issue worse, not better.

According to a White House official, Nielsen was struggling just to get a word in edge-wise. That definitely sounds like a “Trump-kind” of meeting.

Nielsen tried to battle back, one observer said, telling Trump that our laws limit some of what she could do to block the flow of undocumented immigrants

As it is today with most positions in the different Washington agencies, if Nielsen were to resign, since the Homeland Security’s deputy position is vacant, there would be no immediate replacement for Nielsen..

Nielsen has only held this position since last December.  In addition, Trump has never viewed Nielsen very favorably, and he has complained to colleagues that she is “not tough enough”.  This is according to a senior White House official. Trump continues to remind staff that she was a “George W. Bush person” because of her previous tenure as a senior White House Homeland Security Adviser. 

In recent weeks, Nielsen has announced new measures aimed at deterring illegal migration, including criminal prosecutions for parents who cross the border illegally with their children. These families are typically broken up in those circumstances, as federal immigration agents send children to government shelters while their mothers and fathers remain in custody awaiting court dates.

This is a difficult issue as there are many humanitarian organizations that protest against the breaking up of the families.  Much of what this does is cause many problems down the line for the eventual out-come of these children.  The development of immigrant gangs in American cities is sometimes blamed on this breaking up of immigrant families.

Trump has asked for frequent updates about the number of people attempting to cross the border illegally and he has grown increasingly irritated at the recent trends.  This was most likely what caused the outburst in the morning cabinet meeting.

Because of Trump’s comments when he started his presidential campaign, illegal crossings plunged in the early phase of Trump’s presidency.  But they have since returned to levels consistent with the last several years of the Obama administration. Arrests along the border with Mexico typically rise during springtime, when migrants are seeking jobs on US farms and ranches to return for the Summer growing season. 

This president has so much to learn about being the US President, and just being a competent executive.

Copyright G.Ater  2018