Least Vetted Candidate in Modern History Nominating Least Vetted Candidates in Modern History

Donald Trump’s Team Isn’t Performing Due Diligence on Cabinet and Other Administration Picks

Many Americans blindly voted for Donald Trump because he sold himself as a successful businessman who knows the corporate world and how to get things done. That was just one of many deceptions the president-elect foisted on an electorate where many are unable to discern between real and fake news. 

The fact is that Donald Trump is a businessman unlike most others. The head of an allegedly multi-billion dollar empire, Trump does not report to a board of directors. He does not report to shareholders. He does not make his business’s financials public. No public quarterly or annual reports. There are no checks and balances for him. He does not have to follow rules or corporate policy. He doesn’t have to attend Human Resources sessions on, say sexual harassment. He doesn’t even use email.

And no one can fire him.

Trump runs The Trump Organization off his instincts. His gut. His personal beliefs. 

That’s fine for a small business owner, but it’s not how corporate America rolls. It’s not how the federal government rolls. And it certainly is not how the 12 tech CEO’s who sat with him – and his three children – in a meeting Wednesday roll. 

None of them ever would have hired him. His past behavior, Twitter posts, treatment of women and opponents would have been disqualifying.

All of which makes a report published in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday evening exceptionally troubling but not surprising.

Donald Trump and the Trump transition team aren’t properly vetting nominees for his cabinet and other top level administration jobs, where they will have access to some of the nation’s biggest secrets and largest budgets.

“Cabinet picks have been named without extensive reviews of their background and financial records, people familiar with the process say,” the Wall Street Journal’s Damian Paletta reports, noting there “are signs some of Mr. Trump’s choices haven’t been rigorously vetted during the informal deliberation process.”

That’s likely generous. Trump is the least-vetted major presidential candidate, and nominee, in modern history. He refuses to release his taxes. American know almost nothing about his possible ties to foreign governments. While it’s entirely unlikely, Vladimir Putin could personally be writing him million dollar checks and there’s no way the American public would know.

So Trump’s bar of vetting is extremely low, as the Journal notes.

“In many cases, Mr. Trump has announced his prospective nominees without requiring a review of extensive paperwork about their background and financial records, including tax returns, people familiar with the process said.”

Former RNC spin doctor Sean Spicer, now the Trump transition team’s spokesperson and a top contender to become the Trump administration’s press secretary, told the Journal “we have a thorough vet of all nominees and staff members,” but “declined to ‘get into the exact procedures and tactics that we use in all of them.'”

The Journal insists Trump’s nominees are likely to face heavy Senate vetting – that’s ludicrously the title of the article. Given the Senate is under the control of Republicans – they have a 52-seat majority and cabinet nominees require only 51 votes, and the Vice President can be one of those votes – it’s unlikely the Senate will block any of Trump’s nominees.

Mother Jones’s Kevin Drum Wednesday night mocked the Journal’s claim, writing point-blank: “No, the Senate Will Not ‘Heavily Vet’ Trump’s Cabinet Nominees.”

And so, the least vetted major party candidate and nominee in modern history is nominating the least vetted candidates for his cabinet and administration in modern history, and they will all likely be confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate complicit and too afraid to stand up to the newly elected leader of their party.