Never Underestimate the Trump Administration’s Incompetence

(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

ASK ANY NON-MAGA PUNDIT OR COMMENTATOR, and they’ll tell you about a number of different elements of the new administration they find disconcerting or downright scary. But it’s important to not overlook just how incompetent a brand-new administration can be—and that applies doubly when Donald Trump is in charge. The attempt to freeze federal funds to key government programs—and subsequent flip-flopping, misdirection, and rake-stepping—provides a perfect illustration.

First, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo alerting relevant agencies and the public of a freeze on federal grants and loans across the board to allow time for them to be reviewed for their implication in “woke gender ideology” and other ideological bugaboos, causing immediate and widespread confusion and outrage. Then, a federal judge blocked the freeze. After that, OMB issued another two-sentence memo rescinding the funding freeze. Minutes later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that, actually, it was the memo that was rescinded, not the freeze.

“The Executive Orders issued by the President on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments,” Leavitt added in a statement. “This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President’s orders on controlling federal spending.”

Leavitt’s comments were then immediately introduced as evidence that the administration was still implementing the freeze—and that therefore the harm had not abated—in the court case where a restraining order was being sought. The judge then granted the restraining order to halt it, noting that he was intervening in part because “comments by the president’s press secretary” made clear that the memo “rescinding” the funding freeze did not actually stop it.

The White House’s apparent fumbles had Capitol Hill spinning. Was this a success in blocking one of the first harmful actions by Trump? Were professional Republicans getting over their skis by treating the government “like a business” without considering the real-world effects on U.S. citizens? Or was this only the start of a long and drawn-out fight about the president’s ability to usurp Congress’s power of the purse? No one seems to know.