Chaos reigns on the top floor of Trump Tower

(Baonghean.vn) - A week after the election, people are curious whether the 58th floor of Trump Tower is hosting peaceful transition meetings.

The abrupt removal of Governor Chris Christie as head of Trump's transition team is a clear sign of chaos at the top.

The explanation given was that Mike Pence (with his many years as a member of Congress) was better suited to help the new administration navigate the pitfalls and loopholes of an already complex Washington.

But since then, at least five more of Mr. Christie's associates have been purged, including former Congressman Mike Rogers, a leading candidate for CIA director.

Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Mr Trump's transition took place. Getty Images

All fingers are pointed at Trump’s favorite son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a close confidant and campaign contributor. Kushner has particular reason to resent Christie and his loyalists: Kusher’s father served two years in prison for tax evasion and forgery when Christie was the prosecutor.

Of all the factors, this is the most important one that affects Mr. Trump as he researches candidates for his Cabinet and top White House positions, including security staff, and the more than 4,000 positions scattered across Washington.

Eliot Cohen, a state adviser from 2007-2009, described it as “a transition team that was ill-prepared to begin with and is now torn by conflict.”

Mr. Christie has overseen the transition in Washington since September, but if the effort is now in chaos, it can only be because no one on Mr. Trump’s team, including the new president, ever imagined they would actually win.

This showed Mr. Christie's lack of agility compared to Mrs. Clinton's transition team. And when the voting began, the two gentlemen Trump and Pence were shocked to discover that Governor Christie had left them a blank piece of paper.

But there was another problem: almost no one in Washington believed Mr Trump could win, so no one expected the candidate to come knocking on their door and invite them aboard his ship.

With so much doubt, Mr. Trump cannot just hand important jobs to random people and expect them to survive the Senate confirmation process. A bad appointment could paralyze the early days of the new administration and give the new president an amateurish image.

In short, Mr. Trump and many around him don’t understand what they’re doing. Being a non-politician running for the highest office in the country used to be part of Mr. Trump’s appeal. But since the night of the announcement, he’s been hit with uncomfortable realities.

He cannot just act like a CEO, keeping people he likes or thinks he can trust regardless of how Washington reacts.

After having to call all the foreign leaders, perhaps Mr. Trump will no longer think that the election campaign is the most difficult stage of his future presidency.

Thanh Hien

(According to Independent)