Ex-Trump Aide Spots The Donald Trump Power Move Raising Most Alarm Bells
Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin on Monday pointed out what she believes may be one of the most worrying aspects of former President Donald Trump’s reported plan to expand presidential powers if he wins the 2024 election.Griffin, talking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, said she could “confirm everything” in a New York Times article that said Trump would try to increase presidential authority “over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.”“Most of it was stuff that the former president wanted to do in his first term, but aides, like myself and others, talked him out of it,” explained Griffin. Aides at the time argued it would be “too unpopular with the public” and said Trump needed to focus on his reelection campaign, she added.The part that raised “alarm bells” most for Griffin, though, was GOP 2024 front-runner Trump’s desire “to basica
Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin on Monday pointed out what she believes may be one of the most worrying aspects of former President Donald Trump’s reported plan to expand presidential powers if he wins the 2024 election.
Griffin, talking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, said she could “confirm everything” in a New York Times article that said Trump would try to increase presidential authority “over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.”
“Most of it was stuff that the former president wanted to do in his first term, but aides, like myself and others, talked him out of it,” explained Griffin. Aides at the time argued it would be “too unpopular with the public” and said Trump needed to focus on his reelection campaign, she added.
The part that raised “alarm bells” most for Griffin, though, was GOP 2024 front-runner Trump’s desire “to basically make it so much easier to fire career-subject matter experts.”
“That is an effort to make government purely partisan and staffed with loyalists who are going to carry out his agenda,” she said.
The Times reported that Trump would remove employment protections from civil servants “who are supposed to be nonpartisan professionals and experts with protections against being fired for political reasons.”
“Having been in the Trump White House during COVID, I can’t really express how dangerous that would be,” said Griffin. “Had we not had experts there.”
Trump routinely ignored the advice of public health experts during the pandemic, even irresponsibly touting disinfectant as a possible cure, even though in private he acknowledged the danger posed by the coronavirus.
The Times article was “incredibly important reporting people need to pay attention to,” said Griffin, who resigned from the Trump administration following his 2020 election loss and now commentates on the ABC panel show “The View.”
Watch the interview here:
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