from the under-bus-fodder dept
We used to be above this. We used to make fun of the in-fighting occurring in autocratic nations. We used to mock the sycophancy of government officials who spent most of their time jockeying for the position of loyalest loyalist, something that usually came packaged with an inordinate amount of backstabbing. We used to think this could only happen in other countries, ones run by dictators, most of them Communist.
Now, we’re indistinguishable from our enemies of the Cold War days (or China, pretty much every day), at least in terms of the upper administration levels. While DOGE goes about gutting the government and Trump violently vacillates on pretty much every big issue, every high-level official’s job is on the line.
The IRS burnt through two acting commissioners in less than two months as Kristi Noem’s DHS pressed for access to millions of immigrants’ tax records. 38-year IRS veteran Doug O’Donnell retired, rather than cave in to the DHS’s initial demand for only 700,000 tax records. His more Trump-friendly replacement, Melanie Krause, similarly resigned when this demand ballooned to seven million tax records.
The pace of replacement has accelerated. The head of the Treasury Department, Scott Bessent, feels he’s the only one allowed to elevate people to the IRS commissioner position, despite Elon Musk and DOGE apparently being given the same power by Donald Trump himself.
It’s Trump loyalist-on-Trump loyalist action, something that’s absolutely sure to return some form of stability to the federal government, as the New York Times reports.
President Trump has replaced the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service after his appointment just days earlier set off a power struggle between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the billionaire Elon Musk, five people with knowledge of the change said Friday.
Mr. Bessent’s deputy, Michael Faulkender, will be the new acting leader, replacing Gary Shapley, the Treasury Department confirmed on Friday. Mr. Faulkender will be the third acting leader of the agency this week.
Mr. Bessent had complained to Mr. Trump this week that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Mr. Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S...
Just let all the pettiness of this waft over you. Two previous commissioners exited because they disagreed with sharing tax filing data with the DHS. That’s at least a principled stand. The IRS is now on its third commissioner in one week because the head of the Treasury Department complained to his boss that another Trump acolyte has stepped on his administrative toes by moving someone into a slot that now seems incapable of being staffed for more than a few weeks at a time.
Also brace yourself for this impact: tire conspiracy theorist/area bigot Laura Loomer may have had something to do with this new bout of roiling in the Trump administration:
The feud between Mr. Musk and Mr. Bessent went public late Thursday night, when Mr. Musk amplified a social media post from the far-right researcher Laura Loomer accusing Mr. Bessent of colluding with a “Trump hater.”
“Troubling,” Mr. Musk wrote about Mr. Bessent’s meeting John Hope Bryant, the chief executive of the nonprofit Operation HOPE. Mr. Bryant is working on a financial literacy effort with Treasury officials.
Ms. Loomer had called that meeting a “vetting failure.”
Ms. Loomer helped push out several officials from the National Security Council earlier this month, after first attacking some of them online and then meeting with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and presenting him with a list of those she deemed disloyal.
Batshittery, purges, and apartheid money-wielding interlopes. What a country, as ex-pat Russian comedians used to say.
What’s even more enjoyable (in a gallows humor sort of way… I mean, these people are destroying the government from the inside) is that this sets up a showdown Donald Trump won’t be able to avoid. Does he want Musk to take control of staffing, since he’s supposedly in the “efficiency” business? Or would he rather mollify appointed heads of federal agencies, since they’ll likely be there longer than Musk himself, who’s probably going to go back to private sector well before Trump’s second presidential term has concluded? Or does he want to entertain whatever half-formed notion falls out of Loomer’s mouth the next time she drops by the Oval Office?
However that part of the equations turns out, the bottom line is still the same: this administration will purge anyone who isn’t immediately and wholly loyal. It will generate tons of departmental churn to ensure that this happens. And it will definitely create a talent exodus that will harm the federal system for years to come. When this happens, those loyal to Trump will simply claim the failures they created are failures of the system itself. In the meantime, we’ll have to take what pleasure we can from watching those most enthralled by Trump devour each other to get their tongues up a little higher on the boot they’ll be licking for at least the next four years.
Filed Under: doge, donald trump, elon musk, irs, scott bessent, treasury department
