Trump’s Institutionalized Incompetence

I sat with a sense of disgust as I digested the announcement that a new government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, was to be created and headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk. At first, my discontent stemmed from its possible unconstitutionality and the fact that an unelected, inexperienced civilian was to lead it, perhaps signaling an oligarchic turn in my country’s trajectory. 

But then I reread the name. Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE for short. My once-disgust had turned into grim amusement as I realized that an agency of the deeply revered and highly formalized U.S. government was named after a meme. The seemingly chronically online Musk had taken inspiration from the famous and highly circulated image of a Shiba Inu and its subsequent cryptocurrency, dogecoin, which is heavily backed by Musk as well. 

I was stunned. The situation seemed absurd. How did we, the American people, let our government do something that seemed so childish, so unserious? Why did we allow someone who so brazenly mocks his detractors—an apparent prankster—into the top circles of American leadership? This sequence of events was a prelude to the first few months and potentially the next four years of an administration defined by unprofessionalism. Headed by President Donald Trump and a cadre of incompetent confidants, his second term in office is already marked by unprecedented missteps and professional mistakes that will undoubtedly change the face of American politics. His faults will forever scar the office of the presidency and the role of the United States on the global stage, marking the downfall of a once globally respected institution. 

President Trump is no stranger to this. His initial presidency was marked by its own high magnitude of ineptitude, from frequent gaffes to the mishandling of classified documents. Perhaps those missteps could be chalked up to his political inexperience and first-term jitters. Now, while he is still prone to false statements—like erroneously claiming that Spain was a BRICS nation—his new brand of unprofessionalism feels different. It appears more dangerous, and potentially more damaging to America and her political culture, than any presidential action of the past. 

Richard Nixon’s Watergate created deep distrust from the American public in the political system, but Nixon understood that his political career was over after betraying the duties of the presidency, and resigned. Similarly, Bill Clinton’s extramarital affair and abuse of power in the Lewinsky scandal marred the political zeitgeist, yet Clinton has since apologized and understood his wrongdoing. 

Trump, on the other hand, refuses to admit when he errs. Even in the face of public backlash, he is rarely able to admit fault. He is steadfast in continuing his path of dismantling the current administrative and political regimes in the United States, the so-called “deep state” he so reviles. And on his second try, he smartly removed any immediate obstacles towards this goal. The secret group of Trump-hesitant, in-house resistors is long gone. There is no longer a John Bolton, a career diplomat, to push back against Trump’s erratic foreign policy. No more Mark Esper, a high-ranking secretary capable of preventing Trump from launching unauthorized military operations across borders. And most importantly, and perhaps most unfortunately, there is no Mike Pence, a man who arguably saved American democracy through his defiant actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Now, there is just a fraternity of sycophants who hold the highest positions in the American government—often whose only qualification  is that they won’t tell the president “no.”

This has brought some of the most inexperienced and unfit individuals into Trump’s cabinet and council. Take, for instance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose only relevant credential was that he served in the U.S. military. While this is obviously an honorable vocation, it hardly means he is fit to lead the Pentagon. He was most certainly chosen because of his hyper-conservative political commentary and pro-Trump stance during his time as a Fox News commentator. This inexperience has made itself clear with the recent events of the “Signalgate” controversy, when a civilian journalist was made privy to detailed strategic plans to carry out military bombings in Yemen. Trump has since diminished the severity of the situation, attempting to make the literal leakage of information— classified information reserved only for the highest military officials—into a non-story. 

Unprofessionalism is again evident in Elon Musk, who, for all intents and purposes, has become Trump’s right-hand man. His agency, DOGE, has been fraught with unreliable receipts, frequent accounting errors, alongside misrepresenting and missing important government payment information. DOGE is also infamous for employing a select group of teen and early twenties tech-savvy software specialists—nicknamed the “DOGE Boys”—many of whom have dubious pasts. These range from racist tweets and links to cybercriminal groups to being fired from a firm due to leaking company secrets. Disturbingly, some of these individuals, as a quick reminder, have access to sensitive Treasury Department information. Some have even uploaded, potentially unknowingly, DOGE-related work on a public coding website. Soon, one may accidentally post sensitive information about U.S. citizens, jeopardizing the trust and privacy of the American population.

Trump has yet to speak publicly on the issues surrounding DOGE, instead touting Musk and his agency’s efforts at reducing government spending, a major promise of Trump’s political agenda. He is willingly ignoring, or perhaps is oblivious to, the gravity of the security risks with DOGE, so long as the agency furthers his ambition to dismantle the federal government. 

Trump’s tolerance of this level of incompetence without any outright condemnation shows that he is unfit for office. Regardless of his other downfalls as president—like his corrupt selling of Mar-a-Lago golf appointments to global leaders or his skirting of due process—his choice to surround himself with inexperienced and unqualified yes-men proves to be his worst fault. This choice actively risks the national security of the United States and its people. Trump, if he continues to ignore the ineptitude of himself and those around him, will forever damage the interests and standing of the United States.

Photo source: Jon Tyson on Unsplash