Control Freak

"Only I can fix it." -- Donald Trump

   Get with the program and be part of the team. That's a favorite slogan among business and political leaders. They forget, if they ever knew, that journalists are not team players, except in their own newsrooms, and certainly not team players with politicians.

   At the rate things are going, President Trump will be the only person running the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. Already, several dozen senior aides have resigned or been fired, and in some cases no replacements have been named.
   A daily press briefing scheduled for Friday was cancelled, and the president himself called a news conference to make a major announcement, that he was signing an emergency spending bill that he had threatened to veto only hours earlier. However, after talking for about 20 minutes, he left the room without taking any questions from reporters in the room.
   The strategy seems to be part of an attempt to control the Washington press corps.
   All politicians try that, but few succeed, at least in America.  This administration, however, is more blatant about the attempt than others, resorting to insult, abuse and vilification, labeling as "false news" perpetrated by the "fake media" any and all reports that are even remotely negative or that disagree with the president in any way.
   It's enough to send heads spinning among the fact checkers.
   The American press has often been called "adversarial," and to a large extent that's true. It's journalism's duty to report not only what happened and what government officials say about it, but also to dig out and present opposing viewpoints and especially the truth, when perhaps both sides are mistaken or are flat wrong.
  A free press is always adversarial, and these days American journalists have more to be adversarial about.
   Business administration colleges teach that good managers know to give guidance to staffers, then step back and let them do their jobs, rather than leaving them to guess what the boss wants.
   A similar strategy should also be followed in government, as the strategist in chief listens to advisors detail every side of an issue and the president then decides on an appropriate course.
   Currently, however, the current occupant of the Oval Office seems to hear only what he is listening for, and he listens only to those who agree with him, even as his opinions -- based on what he calls his instinct -- vary from day to day, and often reflect what he hears his friends at Fox News say.
   So to bring them even closer, he has taken to hiring commentators away from the Fox network to replace those he has fired as his close advisors -- especially those whose opinions already match his previously established "gut feelings."
   His most recent hiring was that of John Bolton as his national security advisor. Bolton at one time was ambassador to the United Nations, but that was a temporary, recess appointment by President George W. Bush because the Senate refused to consent to a permanent appointment.
   And as the president increasingly moves to take full charge of all Executive Branch operations himself, including sending out announcements via Twitter rather than have senior aides hold press briefings and take questions, that raises the issue of whether the president will be his own press spokesman.
   Not likely, since he has held only one full-scale news conference in his 14 months in office. Besides, even if he does, he cannot control the questions, much as he might like to.
   Now here's an interesting thought: Suppose the current press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, leaves and is replaced by Sean Hannity, the president's favorite Fox News commentator?
   And in yet another sign of his attempt to control everything, Trump demanded that the Senate end its filibuster rule, and that he be allowed a line item veto on future spending bills.
   Imagine the U.S. Senate bending its traditions to fit the demands of any president. As for a line item veto, where the president gets to cut out bits and pieces from spending bills he doesn't like, that was banned by the Supreme Court years ago.
   Which makes one wonder whether this president has ever read any history of presidential obligations, duties, responsibilities and limitations. For that matter, has he even read the Constitution?