It took less than a day following Donald Trump’s decisive victory November 5 for Democrats to start talking about their plans to hamstring his incoming administration. There’s little Trump can do about third parties seeking to undermine his presidency aside from vigorously responding to them, and we can rest assured that he and his team will do just that. But efforts to derail Trump’s mandate aren’t limited to politicians in Albany or Sacramento. There are thousands of Biden administration appointees currently working in the Executive Branch, and Trump can and should get rid of every single one of them on January 20.
These Biden loyalists are working in jobs laid out in a book entitled Policy and Supporting Positions, colloquially known as The Plum Book. From the White House to the Department of State to obscure agencies like the Marine Mammal Commission, presidents have the authority to appoint people to work on their behalf in more than 7,000 positions across scores of Executive Branch departments.
The standard protocol for these appointees includes submitting a formal letter of resignation as an administration prepares to change hands. This has been happening for decades. These letters are held in abeyance until such time that the new administration decides whether to accept or not accept these resignations. All presidents accept and reject them to varying degrees, and Trump should accept every last resignation by every last Biden appointee, and remove them from their jobs on Day One.
Some of these appointees are good and decent people but they were hired for one reason: to implement the Biden agenda. They cannot be reasonably expected to execute the Trump agenda so they should not work in his administration. Commentators on CNN, MSNBC and elsewhere will doubtlessly characterize the acceptance of these resignations as a purge, proof that Trump wants to punish his opponents. It is a lie of galactic proportions. Every president has the authority to appoint people to help his administration, and to accept the resignation of any Plum Book appointee, at any time. That’s how government works.
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The mass resignation of 7,000-plus people sounds pretty startling, and some observers fret that such an exodus would paralyze the government, another claim that is utter nonsense. The actual work of government that helps taxpayers is not performed by presidential appointees. That’s done by approximately 2.1 million career federal employees. They are the ones who make sure people get their Social Security checks and perform the other routine functions of the government. Plum Book appointees, who comprise about three-tenths of one-percent of the federal workforce, don’t do that. They’re there to implement a president’s policies and priorities by dictating and supervising the means of doing so. Again, that’s how government works.
During his campaign, Trump made reference to “the enemy from within.” Given the sheer volume of Plum Book appointees hired to support and implement Biden’s policies, there’s a high likelihood that at least some of them would try to derail Trump’s agenda if they were allowed to remain in their positions. But is it fair to consider these Biden appointees enemies? That’s a harsh term and I’m confident that most do not rise to that level. However, it is not unreasonable to assume that some holdovers would try to undermine whatever Trump is trying to do. That’s a problem, for the president and the people who gave him a mandate to govern.
In an essay for the website Lawfare, former CIA officer David Priess cautioned appointees writing, “staying in office in order to commit sabotage against a democratically elected president acting lawfully… is perilous.” It’s perilous because committing sabotage against a president and his agenda is what the enemies of America do. Iran, China, Russia and other global adversaries are doing it right now, and have been for a long time.
The presence of Executive Branch appointees who seek to obstruct or disrupt the incoming administration’s goals represents an enemy from within which Trump acknowledged during his campaign. It’s impossible to determine who among these Biden appointees would honor their oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and those who would betray that oath. That means they all need to go.
Notwithstanding recent corruptions of the judicial system, there are plenty of legitimate ways to lawfully oppose an American president’s actions, and they should be pursued. Our Constitution guarantees that right, and for very good reasons. But that does not mean a president must permit appointees from a previous administration, with diametrically opposed priorities, to remain in their appointed positions.
As Donald Trump is sworn in, his team will have a stack of thousands of letters of resignation from Biden’s Plum Book appointees. If Trump is serious about draining the swamp, he should accept every one of them, effective immediately.
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