you'refired! from @realDonaldTrump

The Celebrity Apprentice 1600 Edition.

By Ben Everidge for Thomas I  Posted March 29, 2018 at 8:45 a.m.

Another week.  Another Trump Administration official fired.  The drama continues but the White House continues to argue that it is a smooth sailing operation and that there is no turmoil on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

To the rest of America, albeit perhaps more so Independent & Democrat America, it seems like NBC’s popular show, The Apprentice, starring Donald J. Trump, has a new unannounced edition playing.  One might call it, The Celebrity Apprentice 1600 Edition.

Veterans Administration Secretary David Shulkin is the latest casualty of Trump public service.  Fired by Twitter or pushed out the door after massive doses of public humiliation from Mr. Trump, just like previous weeks victims, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, and National Security Advisor, Lt. General H.R. McMaster.  Editor’s Note:  Neither NBC nor Twitter should be held responsible for their affiliation with this story.

Shulkin, even though he was admitted being essentially on the same page as the President when it came to trying to fix the persistently dysfunctional second largest agency of the federal government, got the boot, reportedly for causing turmoil in the Trump ranks. 

Never mind that the President upends official Washington every morning before reaching the Oval Office, as do many members of his Cabinet.  More than 360,000 people work for the VA presently, which spends $186 billion of taxpayer money annually serving nine million former military personnel.

The President announced his latest replacement on Twitter, nominating White House physician, Navy Rear Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, to sit on the hot seat next.  Like Jackson, Shulkin, too, is a physician but had the added benefit or burden of hospital executive tenure.  Jackson, on the other hand, remarkably, has little executive experience.

Shulkin’s firing comes several months after a Wimbledon tennis travel scandal that caught the attention of Congress and the media.  Adding to the drama was senior staff attempts to topple Secretary Shulkin ostensibly because he was not as doctrinaire as the Trump loyalists who were appointed to the VA staff to ensure Shulkin’s loyalty to the President.

An Obama Administration cabinet member, Shulkin has been a target of hard-core Republicans who did not want the Secretary serving in the new Administration.  Until recently, Shulkin enjoyed the support of members of the House majority, in particular, but that support began to quickly erode in recent weeks as at least one influential high-ranking VA staffer was reported to be actively lobbying Capitol Hill for his boss’ ouster.

With 20 percent of Mr. Trump’s cabinet fired already, presidential historians are noting that America has never seen this much turmoil and drama in the first 14 months of a presidential administration ever.  Just look at which very senior aides (some Obama holdovers and others not) had their White House passes revoked (voluntarily and involuntarily) in recent months:

·       Acting FBI Director Sally Yates (January 30, 2017)

·       U.S. Supreme Court Nominee (Under President Obama) Merrick Garland (January 31, 2017)

·       U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (February 13, 2017)

·       Manhattan Federal Prosecutor Preet Bharara (March 11,  2017)

·       Deputy White House Chief of Staff Katie Walsh (March 30, 2017)

·       FBI Director James Comey (May 9, 2017)

·       White House Communications Director Michael Dubke (May 18, 2017)

·       U.S. Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub (July 6, 2017)

·       White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (July 21, 2017)

·       White House Assistant Press Secretary Michael Short (July 25, 2017)

·       White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (July 28, 2017)

·       White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci (July 21, 2017)

·       Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon (August 18, 2017)

·       Deputy Presidential Assistant Sebastian Gorka (August 25, 2017)

·       Oval Office Operations Director Keith Schiller (September 1, 2017)

·       U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price (September 29, 2017)

·       Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen (November 2, 2018)

·       U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chief Richard Cordray (November 24, 2017)

·       White House Public Liaison Spokesperson Omarosa Marigault Newman (December 13, 2017)

·       White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter (February 7, 2018)

·       Associate U.S. Attorney General Rachel Brand (February 9, 2018)

·       White House Speechwriter David Sorensen (February 9, 2018)

·       White House Communications Aide & Jared Kushner Spokesman Josh Raffel (February 27, 2018)

·       White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (February 28, 2018)

·       U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson (March 1, 2018)

·       Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn (March 6, 2018)

·       U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (March 13, 2018)

·       Trump Personal Aide John McEntee (March 13, 2018)

·       Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe (March 16, 2018)

·       U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (March 22, 2018)

·       U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin (March 28, 2018)

Several offices within the White House’s political reach are now on their third and even fourth appointee which is raising questions about how stable is the federal government right now and can the Trump Administration even govern in the aftermath of all this political sacrifice?

In addition to Admiral Jackson, promotions have included General John F. Kelly, who was elevated to White House Chief of Staff from Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney who also gained dual responsibility for running the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and, the various promotions of former trusted campaign aide, Hope Hicks, who has now departed.

Rumored departures are still pending including, potentially (based on humiliating Tweets), Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and even U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

One also has to ask, based on the Trump tea leaves, will General Kelly be among the next to go, too?

 Editor’s Note:  This story is evolving and posted updates are expected.