Trump-Proofing’ is nothing new for the Biden-Harris administration
- November 18, 2024
Michael Chamberlain, Washington Reporter
My organization, Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), was hip to “Trump-proofing” before it was popular.
Suddenly, Trump-proofing is all over the news. President Joe Biden will spend his last months in office Trump-proofing his legacy. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) called a special session of the legislature to Trump-proof the state. Something similar may happen in Washington.
But such efforts have been going on for months, if not years, inside the Biden-Harris administration. The difference is they were quieter. They were also constitutionally questionable. The idea was to insulate the (presumably partisan) federal bureaucracy from attempts by any future administration they opposed to halt or undo initiatives introduced by a friendly administration. In other words, to thwart the will of the majority that voted in the new administration.
Back in August, the Daily Caller reported that PPT had discovered through FOIA documents that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was using Schedule A hiring authority to bypass normal merit-based hiring procedures to load DOJ with new, assumably activist, career appointees who would be an impediment to a Trump administration.