Let’s take stock for a brief moment of an organization that Donald J. Trump once called a “fine-tuned machine.”
* National security adviser Michael Flynn is forced out after 24 days.
* White House communications director Mike Dubke resigned after five months on the job.
* Sean Spicer quit after six months as press secretary when the president hired Dubke’s successor over Spicer’s expressed objections.
* Reince Priebus is forced out as White House chief of staff after seven months, the shortest tenure in history.
* Anthony Scaramucci gets the boot as the new communications director after just 10 days, setting another record for public service brevity.
Five top White House staff members are out the door. And yet … the president once called his administration a “fine-tuned machine” that has been the most productive administration in U.S. political history.
All that productivity has resulted in precisely zero major legislative accomplishments. Republicans now control the White House in addition to Capitol Hill. They wanted to toss out the Affordable Care Act, but failed, with little expectation now that they’ll be able to accomplish their No. 1 mission in life.
You may choose to believe or disbelieve my next statement, but I’ll make it anyway.
I do not wish failure on this administration. I am trying to take the higher road than the one taken by some right-wing radio talk show blowhards who wanted President Barack Obama to fail during his two terms in office.
However, the president needs to stop telling us lies about fine-tuned machines and all that alleged productivity. All roads leading to the White House are strewn with wreckage.
The task now falls on the new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to clean it up.