Trump vs. The Bureaucracy
With a president trying to challenge and discredit Washington’s establishment, how is our government supposed to accomplish anything?
On this week’s episode of The E.R., David Rothkopf, Jacob Weisberg, Colin Kahl, Rosa Brooks, and David Sanger try to decipher the war between the Trump administration and the permanent bureaucracy. The flailing and disorganized president is trying to discredit the bureaucracy and media every chance he gets, but how exactly are the intelligence community and permanent bureaucracy responding? What’s clear is that we seem to be heading into uncharted territory.
On this week’s episode of The E.R., David Rothkopf, Jacob Weisberg, Colin Kahl, Rosa Brooks, and David Sanger try to decipher the war between the Trump administration and the permanent bureaucracy. The flailing and disorganized president is trying to discredit the bureaucracy and media every chance he gets, but how exactly are the intelligence community and permanent bureaucracy responding? What’s clear is that we seem to be heading into uncharted territory.
The panel also debates whether or not civil servants have a legal and moral obligation to leak information they believe violates the Constitution. Or does their loyalty to the administration they serve supersede such judgments?
Jacob Weisberg is the chairman and editor-in-chief of The Slate Group. His most recent book is Ronald Reagan: The American Presidents Series: The 40th President, 1981-1989. Follow him on Twitter at: @jacobwe.
Colin Kahl is a contributing editor to FP’s Shadow Government blog. He’s currently a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in the security studies program, and was previously the deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden. Follow him on Twitter at: @ColinKahl.
Rosa Brooks is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and teaches international law, national security, and constitutional law at Georgetown University. She is the author of How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Follow her on Twitter at: @brooks_rosa.
David Sanger is the national security correspondent for the New York Times and author of Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. Follow him on Twitter at: @SangerNYT.
David Rothkopf is the CEO and editor of the FP Group. Follow him on Twitter: @djrothkopf.
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