In most soon-to-be administrations, a transition team puts potential nominees through a multi-tiered vetting process that involves an FBI background check, scrutiny of conflicts of interest by the Office of Government Ethics, and an attorney-driven sweep for snags by the president-elect's political team.
Not Trump. He farmed out most of the vetting to the Republican National Committee, which tagged potential nominees with a number of red flags that were often ignored or failed to provide any reasonable measure of whether an eventual appointee might be plagued by scandals down the road. Here are some highlights from a trove of documents obtained by Axios.
Trump ignored pertinent red flags
Scott Pruitt and Tom Price, both of whom left under a cloud of scandal, had significant red flags that Trump simply chose to ignore. Pruitt's vetting, for instance, included an entire section devoted to "allegations of coziness with big energy companies." Price had a number of dings for his dismal management skills, featuring a section titled, "Dysfunction And Division Has Haunted Price's Leadership Of The House Budget Committee."
Rex Tillerson, who swiftly became Trump's first secretary of state, raised eyebrows because his "Russia ties go deep." The vetting of Sonny Perdue, Trump's eventual agriculture secretary, featured a number of conflicts of interest, noting that Perdue owned "Houston Fertilizer and Grain, a company that has received contracts from the Department of Agriculture."
But Trump, who reportedly eyeballed the bios assembled by the RNC, either dismissed the concerns or perhaps considered them a selling point when he chose to nominate all four men for key positions in his Cabinet. Meanwhile, Gen. David Petraeus, once eyed but skipped over for the secretary of state and national security adviser posts, was "Opposed to Torture." Deal breaker.
RNC fixated on mean things potential nominees said about Trump
The RNC also paid special attention to people who had dared to criticize Trump. Current White House chief of staff and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney got flagged for observing that Trump "is not a very good person." Nikki Haley, Trump's first U.N. ambassador, had noted that Trump does everything "we teach our kids not to do in kindergarten." Disgraced Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Trump "un-defendable."
Anyway, Trump made some great managerial choices driven by superior vetting by the RNC. Congrats to all on a job well-done.