Drain the Swamp or Stock It With Alligators?

I think that Dan Balz has it about right in his remarks at the Washington Post:

Republicans spent months encouraging Trump to “pivot” to a more presidential style. He resisted, believing that what got him the nomination and would get him the presidency was to knock his rivals as hard as possible and to be as provocative as he could at his campaign rallies. That was the role he adopted to win. No one has a clue as to how he envisions the role of president — how he will address the American people, how he will interact with members of Congress, how he will deal with allies and adversaries.

Trump ran as the outsider who would shake up the capital. By doing that, he became the tribune of the aggrieved, the left out, the people who have little regard for the views of Washington’s elites. But he is a lifelong dealmaker, and Washington is the ultimate dealmaking town. But dealmaking connotes backrooms dominated by insiders making compromises. Do Trump’s core followers want Washington to work better, or do they expect him to be more disruptive, a president who puts the establishment in its place?

and I concur with this:

One early indicator of that thinking will be the selection of a White House chief of staff. From various reports, the competitors include Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a true insider and the favorite of GOP congressional leaders, and Steve Bannon, the architect of Breitbart News, a keeper of the alt-right flame and one of the key strategists for Trump in the final few months of the campaign.

When President-Elect Obama appointed Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff on November 7, 2008, just days after he had been elected president, he effectively hoisted the Jolly Roger. It was a signal that his administration would be highly partisan and there would be no conciliation with Republicans.

If President-Elect Trump names Reince Priebus his Chief of Staff, he’ll be putting the lie to his campaign as an outsider. If he appoints Steve Bannon, it will be a declaration of war both against the Democrats (“the left”) and against the Republican leadership.

However, this is even more highly problematic:

A third issue is playing out daily as the president-elect begins to populate the government he will take over in January. He promised in the closing weeks of the campaign to “drain the swamp” in Washington. That is the rallying cry for a populist movement — Trump’s movement. Inevitably, well-connected political insiders — lobbyists, lawyers, think tank experts and members of the foreign policy establishment — will populate his transition. Who really will control a Trump government, the 45th president or those who could surround and smother him?

I doubt that Trump’s supporters voted for him so he could stock the swamp with alligators. If he does so, the “political insiders” may be his only supporters. As I’ve said before, I don’t envy him his situation. As Samuel Gallu put in Truman’s mouth, if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.