Former Obama official: Trump management style isn’t working in White House

Eleven days after Election Day 2008, Rahm Emanuel told me that I would be the White House Cabinet Secretary in the Obama administration. Explaining the job responsibilities to me, Rahm said: “No surprises. I never want to open the newspaper and see something happening in the government that I didn’t know about in advance.”  

All administrations seek the coordination underlying Rahm’s edict. The White House sets the policy agenda and frames the top-line message. The cabinet offers complementary policies and amplifies the message. Above all, the White House should never, ever be caught off guard by something coming out of an agency.  

{mosads}But Rahm also understood that the “no surprises” edict goes both ways. The cabinet is the President’s team – they run the daily operations of the government and advise him on critical policy decisions. So whenever possible, secretaries and their departments should not be surprised by announcements coming out of the White House.  

This practice wasn’t just a courtesy. Much of the expertise of the federal government lies deep in its agencies, and it would have been foolish not to seek out that experience and wisdom. Working through the intricacies of policy with agency experts and lawyers was not always fun, but it did ensure that everyone understood the policy and how it was to be implemented.   

Just eleven days in office, the Trump administration seems to have jettisoned the traditional “no surprises” edict, with a multitude of surprises emanating from the White House. If this dynamic continues, Donald Trump will find it hard to maintain the loyalty of his cabinet, and more importantly, he will find it impossible to implement his policy objectives.  

Early in administrations, there are always surprises when the staff is new. The frequency drops with experience and the development of policy processes. However, given Donald Trump’s temperament and governing style, there is every reason to believe that unpredictability will be the hallmark of the next four years.

We have a president who has used his Twitter account to slap down House Republicans, John McCain, and major corporations (and that’s the abbreviated list). Given the number of times that Trump’s nominees have already contradicted his views in their confirmation hearings, it’s probably only a matter of time before cabinet members find their policy positions undercut by an early morning tweet.

The Trump governing style is based on a barrage of daily announcements that is designed to keep Democrats on their heels, but it has also caught his own cabinet off guard.

Sally Yates is one of the most principled people I’ve worked with. Her courage and leadership are an example to all public servants

— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) January 31, 2017

Already, we have learned that the Defense Secretary and CIA Director were unaware of a draft order on torture. The State Department was not consulted on the executive action on the Keystone pipeline. And the Secretary of Homeland Security was receiving his first briefing on the travel ban just as the policy document was being signed in the White House.

The president is the boss and the ultimate decision maker. But, no secretary wants to be blindsided by a White House announcement. This leads to bruised egos, infighting, and leaks. More importantly, it leads to bad policy.

At an Obama Administration retreat that I attended in 2009, I recall former Defense Secretary Robert Gates explaining, “The White House can announce whatever policy it wants, but only agencies can implement it.” As a cautionary note, he added, “The speed and thoroughness of the implementation is directly related to whether agencies have been consulted on the policy and buy into it.”

To be sure, the first week of Trump executive actions has been impressive. But scratch beneath the surface and what you see is: a federal hiring freeze that likely won’t reduce the federal workforce; a border wall with no obvious source of funding; and a proposal to cut regulations that experts call “ham-handed.”

The devastating impact of keeping agencies out of the loop was most apparent in the Trump travel ban, which was not discussed with the individuals chosen to lead the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security. Nor was the directive cleared through the usual interagency policy process.

Predictably, the lack of input from the implementing agencies led to confusion among border patrol agents, chaos for travelers landing at U.S. airports, and questions about the legality of the ban that led to the firing of the Acting Attorney General.  

As one administration source explained: “These executive orders are done by a very insular group within the White House with little to no interaction with the Cabinet-level agencies and no coordination … When you’re not thinking through what the consequences are, you’re jeopardizing real people. People could die.”

My thoughts on Trump’s executive actions to freeze federal hiring & cut regulations – clever sound bites that won’t accomplish much pic.twitter.com/eIOQ2U4wOC

— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) January 31, 2017

As Donald Trump has learned in his first week in office, splashy announcements are easy to make. It’s much harder to keep a team together and make lasting policy changes.  

Chris Lu served in the Obama Administration as the White House Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Labor.  He is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia Miller Center.  You can follow him on Twitter: @ChrisLu44