Consider the list of cable news contributors and personalities who have joined the administration or been offered promotions in the last year or so: John Bolton became national security adviser, Matthew Whitaker briefly served as acting attorney general, Heather Nauert almost became U.N. ambassador, Morgan Ortagus was tapped as a State Department spokeswoman, and Bill Shine was Trump’s short-lived communications director. That list doesn’t even include earlier appointments like communications director Mercedes Schlapp, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Tony Sayegh, and of course, who could forget Anthony Scaramucci, whose stint as communications director lasted just 10 days…
All of this matters. The skills that make for steady, wise governance are almost the opposite of the skills needed to shine on cable TV. Governing is a marathon, the sum of thousands of decisions designed, hopefully, to improve the lives of Americans and keep them safe. TV news stardom is a sprint — if you are able to argue for a stretch of five to 10 minutes, repeating the same talking points over and again, you can become famous. Performance skills can sometimes be useful in senior government positions; on TV, they’re just about the only thing that matters.
Of course, Trump ascended to his job after his own razzle-dazzle performance, both on TV and at his rallies — and he seems fairly confident in his own qualifications. It may be little wonder that he applies similar logic to his administration’s staffing decisions.
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