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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - February 22, 2017
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Trump Administration (first term)  Vice President Mike Pence Cabinet • White House staff • Transition team • Trump's second term |
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| Polling indexes: Opinion polling during the Trump administration |
This is the February 22, 2017, edition of an email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition, cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
Catching up with the DNC
New leadership
See our overview of the upcoming election for DNC chair here.
This weekend, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will meet and select a new chairperson to fill the vacancy left when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) resigned last summer. Since then, Donna Brazile has served as the interim chair. Six major candidates for the position remain; Rep. Keith Ellison and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez are considered the frontrunners in the race:
- Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.): Ellison has emphasized the importance of developing relationships between the party and voters, especially with working class families and workers’ unions, for winning elections. In a January interview, he highlighted the importance of turnout, saying, “We must, in terms of turnout, think in terms of expanding the electorate beyond the people who are the likely voters in the swing states. Turnout has got to be key.” His major endorsements include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).
- Tom Perez: Perez, who served as Barack Obama’s secretary of labor from 2013 to 2017, has based his candidacy on increased collaboration between the DNC and state parties. His major endorsements include Govs. Terry McAuliffe (Va.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), John Bel Edwards (La.), and Gina Raimondo (R.I.).
- Pete Buttigieg: Buttigieg, a Rhodes Scholar and veteran Navy counterterrorism expert, is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He has campaigned as an alternative to the candidates who were major players in the 2016 Democratic primary contest. He told The New York Times in January, “I can’t think of something more meaningful than organizing the opposition in the face of what I think will be a pretty monstrous presidency and challenging time out here in the states. Sitting back and waiting for the map and demographics to save us—that’s not going to be enough.” He has been endorsed by former DNC chairs Steve Grossman and Howard Dean as well as former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. (As best as we can tell, it’s pronounced BOOT - uh - jedge).
- Sally Boynton Brown: Boynton Brown, the executive director of the Democratic Party of Idaho, advocates for further collaboration with local and state parties and for a system of new power, which she describes on her website: “Key values for new-power align perfectly with our party: collaboration, transparency, and participation. By bringing diverse thinkers together we can access the best collaborative solutions with considerable buy-in from every perspective in our organization before moving forward.”
- Jaime Harrison: Harrison is the chair of the Democratic Party of South Carolina. In addition to emphasizing state and local party coordination, Harrison has made activist outreach a key part of his platform. In a February interview, Harrison said, “ I think the next DNC chair has to be someone who is a fighter. Not only who can lead the fight against Donald Trump—and coming from a red state, you have to know how to fight. But I think fighting also in terms of understanding, and having the worldview and experience of seeing roadblocks and getting over them. And I’ve had that.”
- Jehmu Greene: Greene, a former commentator on Fox News and former president of Rock the Vote, has advocated for herself as a strategist. In a candidate forum inFebruary, Greene said, “We all focus on the 50 state strategy. A strategy developed over a decade ago is not going to cut it in this unprecedented political reality. We need a new strategy. We need someone who is a strategist. We need someone who is an organizer. In this unprecedented moment, we don’t need another politician.”
Political priorities in Trump administration
- Within the party, all of the candidates for chair agree, elected officials and candidates need to do a better job of connecting with African American and working class voters. The party has also indicated that future work will prioritize state and local talent development, something that many in the DNC say was put aside during Obama’s presidency.
- Strict opposition to Donald Trump is almost guaranteed. None of the candidates for DNC chair have indicated they will cooperate with President Trump on any issue. At a candidate forum in January, Tom Perez said, “I think we should afford Donald Trump the same courtesy that Mitch McConnell afforded Barack Obama.” The other candidates for chair nodded in agreement.
- Party unity is expected to be one of the main messages going forward. The 2016 primary election between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton revealed tension between different wings of the Democratic Party. Rep. Debbie Dingell (Mich.), a former DNC member, told Roll Call today that party unity should be the DNC’s top priority, saying, “Whoever gets elected has to first make sure that it isn’t another schism in this party.”
Catching up with the RNC
New leadership
Since the election of Donald Trump, leadership at the RNC has turned over significantly. Three top committee members moved to the Trump administration: former RNC chair Reince Priebus was appointed White House chief of staff; former RNC communications director and chief strategist Sean Spicer took on the role of White House press secretary; and former RNC chief of staff Katie Walsh was appointed deputy chief of staff in the Trump administration.
The new leadership at the RNC consists of:
- Ronna Romney McDaniel: Trump announced that he supported McDaniel for RNC chair in December 2016, and she was elected by the committee’s members on January 19, 2017. During the presidential campaign, she was a staunch supporter of Trump. Previously, she was elected to serve a two-year term as the chair of the Republican Party of Michigan in February 2015. During her campaign, McDaniel sought to build solidarity between the establishment members of the party and grassroots activists. According to the Detroit Free Press, McDaniel earned 55 percent of the membership vote, which included the support of both the establishment wing of the party and tea party members.
- Bob Paduchik: Paduchik ran Trump’s Ohio campaign in the general election after having initially worked for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He managed both successful Ohio campaigns for President George W. Bush and Rob Portman’s 2010 run for U.S. Senate. Paduchik was selected as co-chair in January 2017.
- Sara Armstrong: Armstrong, who was CEO of Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee, was appointed as RNC chief of staff in January 2017. She previously worked as deputy chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush and was vice president of the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Political priorities in Trump administration
- As is typical of the party that holds the presidency, the RNC’s political priorities align with the Trump administration’s. The most frequent message from chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel is that they will operate to support “change.” After announcing a record $19 million fundraising campaign in January 2017, McDaniel said, “I am encouraged by the historic support shown by Americans across this country as our Party unites under President Trump. It is clear our message of bringing change to all people is resonating, and I am committed to harnessing this momentum as we continue to build on the successes we earned in 2016.”
- RNC officials have also worked to promote Trump’s Cabinet picks and Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. In a recent op-ed, co-chair Bob Paduchik wrote that Gorsuch “is an embodiment of the promise Trump made last year to appoint a justice whose views would be consistent with tens of millions of Americans who voted for him. This is the people’s seat, and the president is treating it as such.”
Read on: Overview of the Republican National Committee
Read on: Overview of the Democratic National Committee
New National Security Advisor
Since our last edition of You’re Hired, President Trump has brought in a new national security advisor, three-star Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. Here are a few quick things to take away from McMaster’s background and experience:
- McMaster was one of the first military officials to effectively use counterinsurgency tactics in the second Iraq war. In the effort to retake Tal Afar, a city in northern Iraq, McMaster employed political as well as military efforts, working with the local population. In a 2006 profile, he told The New Yorker of the effort, saying, “You gotta come in with your ears open. You can’t come in and start talking. You have to really listen to people.”
- He has a Ph.D. in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation, which charged that military leaders in Vietnam failed to give the president honest military advice, was published as Dereliction of Duty in 1997.
- He has served in the Army since 1984 and intends to remain on active duty while serving as national security advisor—something not done since Colin Powell served in that role under Ronald Reagan. He will require Senate confirmation, not to become national security advisor, but to keep his three-star rank while serving in the White House. All three- and four-star ranks for generals and admirals are tied to their positions, so any change in position requires reconfirmation by the Senate. No hearing is anticipated for this confirmation.
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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