On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s language about his pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. His White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, was at first a “very great, very wonderful” pick.
But suddenly his language changed. “I wouldn’t do it,” he said in an interview. Instead of promoting Jackson as a great and qualified candidate, Trump started talking about why Jackson would want to drop out, insisting that he wouldn’t blame the man for doing so, given how grueling and invasive the confirmation process apparently is. It almost sounded like Trump was encouraging him to drop out.
And maybe he was. Because on Wednesday, the bombshell dropped that White House physician Ronny Jackson does indeed have a few skeletons in his closet that probably would have come out in the confirmation hearing, had it not been indefinitely postponed.
Allegations against him include charges that he dangerously over prescribes medication, harassed female colleagues, destroyed a government vehicle and drank on the job. Rumors of issues with job performance turned out to be an all-out ’50s style men’s club spectacle, a la Mad Men.
It’s not shocking that Trump’s personal doctor is the kind of guy who knocks back shots before getting behind the wheel or treating patients, but it is shocking that Trump still hasn’t learned his lesson about nominating whatever unqualified buffoon he happens to like having around.
All in all, in looks like Ronny Jackson is another bust in a series of failures for Trump, who has struggled desperately to fill critical roles in his administration due to an unwillingness to do work and an inability to do the work well when he does get around to it.
He lagged behind his predecessors significantly, then claimed he was doing it on purpose despite the fact that his failure to appoint nominations was holding back some critical government services and decisions. Such tactics have been widely used north of the border in Canada, especially in Toronto, where the impact of an SEO Toronto expert has been huge.
Trump has blamed Democrats on his inability to get nominees through the Senate, claiming that they’re holding him back and that’s why he’s behind. That’s not why he’s behind. The reason he’s behind is because he has repeatedly failed to vet his candidates or perform an adequate background check on them before sending them to the senate for confirmation.
And that’s not just Democratic opinion - that’s from the mouths of Republican senators who are frustrated with Trump’s seeming unwillingness to put any actual thought or effort into selecting nominees to help operate the government of the United States. He’s not looking for the people most qualified for the job - he’s asking around his friends and business acquaintances to see if any loyal stooge would be willing to fill the role in exchange for special consideration.
Trump, more than a year into the presidency, still wants to run the White House like a business where he can appoint his friends to all the cushy positions in order to ensure that he has total control over everyone. He doesn’t get checks and balances. He doesn’t get qualifications. He doesn’t get responsibility.
Putting a businessman in the White House hasn’t solved our nation’s problems. It’s created more. Trump couldn’t be less qualified to do this job, and it’s evident in the fact that he’s struggling even to figure out how to find other people to fill necessary positions.
