News Journal: If Trump’s such a good manager, why are so many people leaving the White House?

Ted Kaufman is a former U.S. Senator from Delaware.

Donald Trump became president by persuading millions of voters he would use the managerial skills he developed as a “fantastically successful” business executive to “make American great again.” Over and over again he promised, “I will hire the best people.”
Of all the broken campaign promises Trump made, this may be the one that has turned out to be the most outrageously false.
Where to start? How about at the top — what we would call the chief operating officer of a corporation — the White House chief of staff.
Reince Priebus, the former national chairman of the Republican Party, had zero experience in the federal government. Handpicked by Trump, he lasted 189 days on the job, the shortest tenure in American history.
His successor, John Kelly, has had the job for eight months, but there are constant rumors about his imminent departure.
Probably the second most important job in the White House is national security adviser. Despite numerous warnings about his many problems, Trump personally chose Michael Flynn for the post.
Flynn lasted 24 days, again and by far the shortest tenure in history. He has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
His successor, H.R. McMaster, was replaced last Thursday after 13 months, less than half the average tenure of previous National Security Advisors. What is the bet on how long his successor John Bolton will survive?
You want to talk turnover? Trump has appointed four different White House communication directors in just 14 months. One of them, Anthony Scaramucci, set a tenure record unlikely ever to be equaled — just 10 days.
Think about it. Can you really sell yourself as a great manager when the people you handpicked for the three most important jobs in the White House all set records for the shortest tenures in their jobs in American history?
According to a Brookings Institute study, in the first year 34 percent of Trump’s most senior staffers quit, switched roles or were fired. That compares with 9 percent in the Obama administration, 6 percent in the George W. Bush administration and 17 percent in the Reagan administration.
The latest figure, based on the National Journal’s White House Tracker, is 43 percent. That is more than twice the turnover of any administration since National Journal began its tracking in 1981.
Move out of the White House to the cabinet. Rex Tillerson has just become the shortest-lived Secretary of State in history. He did manage in his short tenure to decimate the department he led.
Sixty percent of its career ambassadors left in 2017. Sixty of the top 153 positions in the department are unfilled.
Turnover is only part of the story. Jeff Sessions is the only attorney general in American history to be subjected to constant public criticism by the President who appointed him. He may be gone by the time you read this. Who knows? Probably not even the President, who says he “loves chaos.”
How about the rest of the cabinet? It took Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price just seven months to resign, after admitting to spending more than $1 million for personal travel on charter jets and military aircraft.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry thought the department he was picked to head was all about oil and gas. Only after he was appointed did he find out it was really about nuclear energy, a subject he knew nothing about. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had perhaps the most embarrassing confirmation hearing in recent history, exhibiting her ignorance about basic policies involving schools and financial aid.
As I write, eight of the fifteen members of the President’s cabinet are being investigated by their departments’ inspector generals for financial improprieties.
Trump summed up his management style in a tweet recently, saying, “I like conflict. I like having two people with different points of view … I like watching it.”
Maybe that works when you’re running a relatively small real estate development firm or a reality TV show, but it sure doesn’t work as a strategy for running the largest, most complex organization in history.
Trump told reporters Tuesday he was “very close” to having the cabinet he wanted. Based on what has happened during his first 14 months, is there anyone who believes that?