Due to the mass exodus of administration aides and advisers who have left the White House -- either by quitting or being pushed out -- President Donald Trump has been forced to hire former members of President George W. Bush's administration despite having nothing but contempt for what he calls "Bushies."
According to a report at Politico, "President Donald Trump uses the term 'Bushie' as shorthand for anyone he considers too establishment, thinks too conventionally, or is just, in the president’s mind, a pain."
But, with the White House in constant turmoil and high-ranking officials leaving at a record pace as the president faces multiple investigations, Trump has been forced to hire who he can to fill key posts.
"Bush administration alums now run huge swaths of Trump’s government. They’re at high levels of his departments of Homeland Security, Labor, State, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. At the White House, they staff his legal and domestic policy offices," Politico reports.
This has some of Trump's ardent supporters furious who don't care for Bush-style conservatism and would prefer he tap people who helped him win the presidency.
“And Trump wonders why he can’t get anything done,” explained a former Trump transition official, who claims Trump’s senior staff have shut out loyalists from plum positions. “It was hard in January 2018 to imagine Trump senior personnel decision-making to get any worse. But it has.”
Among Trump's picks from the Bush years is "Bill Barr, a former Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush as his replacement for Jeff Sessions. Two of his recent hires for the White House counsel’s office, Mike Purpura and Pat Philpin, served under President George W. Bush. They will report to the new White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, who served in the elder Bush’s Justice Department," Politico reports.
According to the report, "Bushies" are still not held in high regard at the White House and their links to an earlier time are used as a "weapon" to undercut their advice and positions.
The report states, "One former administration official said that Trump officials and allies often 'use the Bush term to their advantage' by reminding Trump and his senior aides of an internal rival’s ties to the Republican clan."
You can read more here.