Washington: Can you have a rip in a swamp? How else to explain how Drainer-in-Chief Donald Trump seems to be getting dragged under, into the murk, instead of yanking a plug to fulfil that oft-stated promise that became a chant at his campaign rallies: "drain the swamp!".
As the President-elect assembles his cabinet and White House team, old lines of Washington power, financial and political, are so apparent that some who voted for the New York realtor and reality TV star might wonder if this really is how to make America great again.
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Mnuchin 'relatively safe choice' says analyst
President-elect Donald Trump picks ex-Goldman Sachs Steven Mnuchin to lead the US Treasury Department and Wall Street breathes a sigh of relief, says an analyst.
DC's reliable revolving door spins dizzily. As trusted corners of the corporate world throw up appointees, old-boy political networks we were assured had been rendered impotent by campaign combat, seem to be merging effortlessly into a power matrix that will define Trump's Washington. For more than half of Trump's nine key appointments to date are considered to be accomplished insiders from Washington and Wall St.
There was an intake of breath on Wednesday when Trump confirmed that his nominee for treasury secretary is one-time Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood movie investor Steven Mnuchin, known in some quarters as the "foreclosure king" for the manner in which a bank of which he was a part-owner, is said to have foreclosed on an estimated 36,000 homeowners during the 2007 housing crisis.
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"Harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive…inequitable, unconscionable vexatious and opprobrious," a judge who examined one of the foreclosures said of the bank's practices.
On Twitter, Mnuchin was described as "basically the cartoon-villain personification of everything alt-right rails against". The alt-right being the school of ethno-nationalist conservative thinking that threw its weight behind the Trump campaign.
Mnuchin is not the only Goldman Sachs alumnus in the Trump team. Steve Bannon, the Trump campaign chief who is to be his White House strategist, also did time at Goldman Sachs. And Gary Cohn, another Goldman Sachs veteran, reportedly is being considered to run the Office of Management and Budget.
What's remarkable in all this, is that during the campaign, Goldman Sachs and its current CEO Lloyd Blankfein were the face of corporate evil for Trump – not only were they too pally with "crooked" Hillary Clinton, but according to one of Trump's TV ads, Goldman Sachs had "robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities."
Democrat firebrand and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was scathing on Mnuchin's proposed appointment.
"[It] should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, and it's the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp and every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies," Warren said.
America's estimated 500 billionaires might be unlikely candidates for a White House team that working-class Americans were promised would look out for them. At his last campaign rally in Michigan, Trump told supporters: "we're fighting for every citizen that believes that government should serve the people, not the donors and not the special interests".
But already Trump, a billionaire, has appointed three more billionaires to a team that combined, has amassed extraordinary wealth.
Distressed assets investor Wilbur Ross is Trump's nominee for commerce secretary; Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Rickets would be Ross' deputy; and GOP fundraiser-extraordinaire, wife of Amway heir Dick DeVos and private schools advocate Betsy DeVos is Trump's pick as secretary of education.
It's hardly surprising that Trump has named Georgia congressman Tom Price, an avowed critic of Obamacare, as his secretary of health and human services; Elaine Chao, a labour and transport bigwig from the Bush eras, as his secretary of transportation; Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, whose apparent racism cost him a judicial appointment during the Reagan years, as attorney general; and Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo, who is just dying to take a sledgehammer to the Iran nuclear deal, as director of the CIA.
But if we're being told that the GOP now is Trump's creature, how might the balance of power between the White House and the Capitol be calibrated?
Much of Trump's populist promises are heretical in the policy canons of the Republican Party, but the candidate who wanted to slaughter the Washington and GOP establishment, and House Speaker Paul Ryan in particular, seems to be surrounding himself with heavies from The Hill or their network buddies.
Ryan and GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell ought to be feeling quite smug, because the influence they will wield in the Trump White House is significant. Consider:
Reince Priebus, RNC chairman and Trump's choice as White House chief of staff, goes way back with Ryan – both hail from Wisconsin and are long-term allies. Future Health Secretary Price is one of Ryan's best congressional friends and allies. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is running Trump's transition team. Trump picked Pence for the ticket as governor of Indiana, but in a previous life Pence was in Congress where he worked closely with Ryan and Price.
Chao's resume is loaded with DC intrigue too. Yes, she served in the Bush administrations, but it's her country of birth and the particulars of her marriage, that excite critics and allies alike. Some will say that her birth in Taiwan is a gesture to diversity by Trump, who is cast as president for white, working-class America. That she is married to Mitch McConnell will prompt cries of nepotism from others.
But damned clever politics, don't you think?
The Trump promise for which Republican leaders in Congress have shown virtually no enthusiasm is his plan to invest $US1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) in upgrading national infrastructure. By appointing Chao to oversee the big spend, Trump seems to be betting on the issue being resolved at the Chao-McConnell breakfast table.
The move certainly has not knocked McConnell off his stride. Asked if, as senate leader, he might recuse himself from his wife's confirmation hearing, he didn't miss a beat – "let me be quite clear, I'll not be recusing myself. I think it's an outstanding choice."
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