America's Problem Employee

This is part of an occasional series on American politics.

I once had a problem employee.

Nearly every day someone on my staff would come to me and complain about her behavior and almost every day I would pull her aside to try to get to the bottom of things from her perspective. She would always have a plausible explanation that would help me categorize the latest episode as a misunderstanding or miscommunication.

But it went on and on. It never stopped. After a few months I had to turn things around on her and explain to her that her explanations were no longer plausible. For me to believe her side of the story, I would have to allow myself to believe that everyone else was wrong and she was always right. This is statistically impossible and behaviorally improbable.

All the evidence pointed in one direction. The problem was with this employee not the rest of the staff. I explained this to her. She thought about it. And, surprisingly, she agreed. For the first time, she acknowledged to me that she was wrong and the responsibility was hers to do better.

This brings me to our current national problem with our top public employee: President Trump. Who, it should be noted, works for us.

I’m writing on the morning the New York Times published the initial results of an investigation, that shows over the last fifteen years, Donald Trump has paid barely any taxes. The taxes he has paid are actually less than what an average American, making about $30,000 a year would pay, on an annual basis. He has done this, according to the Times, by consistently losing more money each year than he makes.

The Times report does not dwell on the inequity. It’s too obvious. Instead, the reporting team responsible for the story, points out that their investigation shows Trump has been lying about his wealth and his success as a businessman for decades, and therefore, the reputation he rode to the White House - that of a successful businessman - is the big lie all his others lies rest on.

The Times promises more reporting to come, which may include expanding on the loans Trump has taken from foreign entities that may have influence over his policy decisions as president.

I have a writing prompt for this column. Just before I sat down to the keyboard, I was flipping through the news on YouTube and saw a thumbnail for a video featuring a deposition given by Donald Trump, Jr. I don’t know where the deposition was given or why, but it occurred to me that defending yourself in a legal setting is a rite of passage in Trump’s world and in his family.

I was once told by a Washington, D.C. lobbyist that “if you haven’t been indicted, you are not doing your job.” In the Trump family, and in his larger circle, it is as if your first court fight is more important than puberty as a step toward adulthood.

Most people will go through their entire lives never having to appear in court, never sitting for a deposition, or even hiring a lawyer for anything more than a real estate closing or to draft a will. But with Trump and his family, seeking and avoiding legal disputes is a way of life. The legal system is one tool used to sow chaos around an issue in the hope of gaining an advantage that will lead to a better settlement in the end. It leads me to think the Trumps - and the president - are often wrong and whomever they are fighting in court are probably right. Why else would they so often end up in court?

Over the last four years a parade of highly competent people have marched in and out of the Trump administration. Almost always, President Trump praises them as they come in the door as being the best of the best, and trashes them as they leave, calling them, dumb as a rock, incompetent, unable to handle the pressure, not up to the job, or the catch-all go-to phrase, disgruntled.

Even for Trump supporters, we appear to be reaching the point where it is no longer believable. It cannot be that the president is always right and the highly competent people he once recruited, to bolster his own image, have proven to be incompetent. Keep in mind many of these so called incompetents had risen to the highest levels of government and the private sector before making the mistake of working in the Trump White House. They did not rise up through three and four decade careers as a result of their incompetence. It is not plausible to think they got as far as they did in life only to be unmasked by Trump. There is no evidence to suggest Trump is a good judge of character or talent. Trump is wrong.

In the last month, the president’s basic lack of integrity has been revealed through reporting from three different highly credible sources. In each case, the president and his supporters, have labeled the reporting as “fake news.” This is another Trump excuse that doesn’t add up.

The first report came from Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who reported on the president’s characterization of veterans, and those killed in action or taken as prisoners of war, as suckers and losers. The second report, which relies heavily on Trump’s own words, came from Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, who concluded at the end of his book that Trump simply is not the right man for the job of president of the United States. And the third, highly credible report, comes from the New York Times, which through a substantial investment of time and money has been able to gain access to the tax records Trump has been trying to hide from the public for years.

Why is all this reporting about Trump more credible than Trump’s denials? Because the institutions behind the reporting; The Atlantic, the Post and the Times; and the reporters who did the work; Goldberg, Woodward, and Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire of the Times, have dedicated their careers and reputations to uncovering the truth. If any of these reporters, or the institutions they work for, were to actually publish “fake news” the reporters would lose their livelihood and the institutions they work for would be forced out of business.

Unlike President Trump, who lies habitually and encourages others to lie on his behalf, these journalists - and many others - have no less than a sworn fidelity to the truth. Supporters of Trump, and the president himself, will raise issues about anonymous sourcing and documents obtained through secret channels, but they never rebut the fundamental truth behind the reporting. Because they can’t. The stories are accurate and Trump is lying.

Nearly every day for the last four years President Trump has publicly attacked anyone who has questioned his judgement or his behavior. He has disparaged nearly everyone who has left his administration. He has declared war on the American news media. If you listen to Trump, he is always right and anyone who even questions him, is wrong. This is not possible. It is not plausible. There are too many people who look at Trump and reach the same conclusion. We not only have the word of anonymous sources, who remain anonymous to avoid Trump’s public ridicule, but through the Woodward book and the Times reporting, we have the president indicting himself with his own words and actions.

President Trump is our problem employee and since he shows no sign that he is able to self-evaluate his short-comings and adjust his own behavior, we have no choice, as his employer - as voters - but to let him go.