WASHINGTON -- Johnny McEntee, director of presidential personnel for President Donald Trump, has begun combing through various agencies with a mandate from the president to oust or sideline political appointees who have not proved their loyalty, according to several administration officials and others familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The push comes in the aftermath of an impeachment process in which several members of Trump's administration provided testimony about his behavior concerning Ukraine.
"We want bad people out of our government!" Trump tweeted Feb. 13, kicking off a stretch of firings, resignations and appointments.
The National Security Council, the State Department and the Justice Department are of particular focus, according to two administration officials, and there have recently been multiple resignations and reassignments at each of those agencies.
John Rood, the official in charge of Defense Department policy who had certified that Ukraine had met anti-corruption obligations, was let go last week. Victoria Coates, the deputy national security adviser, was removed from her post and was moved to an advisory position in the Energy Department.
McEntee spent part of last week asking officials in various Cabinet agencies to provide names of political appointees who are not fully supportive of Trump's presidency, according to administration officials.
McEntee's discussions with Cabinet agencies were first reported by Axios.
Sean Doocey, the former director of presidential personnel, reported to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney's deputy, but McEntee, 29, reports directly to the president, according to a senior administration official.
An effort that began as what critics called a campaign of retribution against officials who participated in the impeachment process has evolved into a full-scale effort to create an administration more in sync with Trump's agenda, according to several officials familiar with the plan. It is unclear whether civil servants will be vulnerable as well.
As he became the third president in American history to be impeached, Trump and his top advisers realized that they had not focused enough on personnel in the early part of his presidency, officials said.
Some saw the effort as being reflected in Trump's decision last week to appoint Richard Grenell as the next acting director of national intelligence, placing a loyal but inexperienced ally atop the agency.
Mulvaney used a speech last week at the Oxford Union in Britain to inveigh against the "deep state," and he lamented that the administration could not fire more agency employees who do not implement the president's orders. He referred to some of the testimony of witnesses who participated in Trump's impeachment inquiry.
Bureaucrats who want to make policy instead of implement it "should put their name on the ... ballot and run" for office, he said during remarks to a group of several hundred people, according to audio of the speech obtained by The Washington Post.
Cliff Sims, a former adviser who wrote a book about his time in the White House, said Trump's presidency has been repeatedly undermined by disloyal underlings.
"Loyalist shouldn't be a dirty word," he said. "Loyalty to the duly elected president and his agenda is exactly what we should expect from our unelected appointees."
Brendan Buck, a longtime adviser to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that while Trump is entitled to have political appointees who support his agenda, the purity tests could make it difficult to find qualified people.
"If they also insist on hiring only people who've never taken issue with something the president has done, it's going to be slim pickings," he said.
A Section on 02/23/2020