When Donald Trump issued his executive order calling for a Travel Ban, not many in his administration or those who would implement the order knew precisely what was in the order.
There was mass confusion to all parties involved.
Even Trump officials like Chief of Staff Reince Priebus contradicted himself within the same sentence. During an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC Sunday morning Priebus said the order didn't effect green card holders and then explained how it did effect green card holders. You can't make this up.
CNN's Pamela Brown tried to sort through what had transpired within the Trump administration.
Brown said, "We learned this executive order was so closely held that the policy team at the White House largely avoided the traditional inner agency process that would have allowed Homeland Security agencies to provide the operational guidance ahead of time."
How does a president institute a controversial policy like a "travel ban" and not prepare the agencies beforehand?
Brown continued, "And according to numerous officials we spoke with, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and career officials wit operational experience didn't see the final details until shortly before that order was signed on Friday, sending the officials in charge of enforcing it scrambling to figure out what the executive order meant."
Now that's leadership! Issue a complex order and then watch those tasked with it running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Is this a new video game for Bannon and Miller to play with?
She continued, "...especially for the passengers on U.S. bound planes at the time the order was signed as well as for those green card holders from those 7 countries."
Screw the people and watch them cluck!
It gets even worse.
Pamela had more, "And we've learned that Friday night, DHS arrived at the interpretation that the executive order restrictions apply to those 7 countries. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen did not apply to green card holders and then the White House overruled that guidance overnight according to officials familiar with this roll out.," she said.
That means Steve Bannon overruled them.
She continued, "Their decision held that on a case by case basis DHS would allow green card holders to enter the U.S. Now administration officials have defended the process, they said the people who needed to be briefed ahead of time on the plan were briefed and that people at the State Department and DHS were involved in the process and were able to make those decisions about who to talk to and inform about this, but officials we have spoken said a lot of the chaos and confusion could have been avoided if officials involved with the enforcement of the order were given more advanced notice."
This is crazy. Paranoia runs deep in Trump-land.
Donald is running the Oval Office like a competition on The Apprentice.
Mike Allen writes there's 'trouble ahead':
Despite the bravado, others who are high-up inside the administration worry that the ham-handed handling of the ban and its rollout are indicative of bigger problems ahead. These sources say:
- Big decisions, and edits to crucial documents, are made in the dark of night, with scant input beyond the inner circle. "There are a few guys who keep everything to themselves," said a top official.
- The insular inner circle is getting more insular, as it amasses more power.
- No force within the West Wing is a sure-fire counterweight to Bannon/Miller.
- The inner circle, resentful of leaks, seeks little input from the Cabinet, outside allies or Hill leaders. A leadership aide told us yesterday afternoon: "Congressional leaders had no hand in drafting this and haven't been briefed from the White House on how it works."
- Trump is showing no signs of WANTING order: He loves the competing views, internally and externally, allowing him to be the (usually last-minute) decider.
- The place oozes paranoia. So every bad move is simply chalked up to media-hate.