Presidential ADD

Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is calling the attention span of the Trump administration “a real problem.”

“It’s unbelievable to me,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Politico for a report detailing lawmakers’ frustrations with the White House’s difficult honing in on one issue.

“The attention span just seems to be ... it’s a real problem," she added.

Another Republican lawmaker, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) described it as “attention deficit disorder.”

  The Hill

It took a few weeks to land on his radar, but President Trump now views Veterans Affairs Sec. David Shulkin as a major problem. Trump has been telling associates he doesn't know what's happened at the VA, but he doesn't like what he's hearing and he may have to fire Shulkin if the situation further deteriorates.

  Axios

Unless something else takes his attention first.

Behind the scenes last week, chief of staff John Kelly met with Shulkin at the White House on Monday afternoon. Shulkin brought along his deputy Tom Bowman and his chief of staff Peter O'Rourke, according to three sources with direct knowledge.

Kelly told Shulkin he's got to end the drama at the VA and stop fighting with his staff. Kelly's sick and tired of Shulkin freelancing and talking directly to the press. He wants Shulkin to just shut up and stop causing drama, those sources say.

He's just following his leader's example.

Right after his meeting with Kelly, Shulkin was brought into the Oval Office to talk to Trump.

[...]

Trump surprised Shulkin by dialing in Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth on speaker phone to get his opinion of the legislation, according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation.

Unfuckingbelievable.

The Hegseth call put Shulkin in an awkward spot, according to those sources. Hegseth competed for Shulkin's job and favors more aggressive reform for the VA. Trump talks to Hegseth regularly and enjoys watching him on Fox and Friends.

And using him to pitch a conflict with someone else.

After visiting the White House, Shulkin spoke to The New York Times.

[...]

[Shulkin] said in an interview that President Trump and Mr. Kelly supported his making changes at the department, including the removal of any staff members who did not support him."

[...]

This isn't the first time [...] Senior White House officials were infuriated by an interview Shulkin gave Politico late last month, where he effectively said the same thing. The headline blared: "Shulkin says he has White House backing to purge VA." But the White House gave Shulkin no such authority at the time, and in fact stymied his attempts to fire what he perceived as Trump political appointees who were conspiring against him.

They agreed to work with Shulkin on fixing his staff problems. But both times they talked, he went directly to the media and declared victory.

Shulkin can play the game as well as Kelly and Trump, apparently. Until he gets the boot, anyway.




Is it presidential?  If you're talking about the image, no.  But if you're talking about real presidential precedents, perhaps.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.