Trump's lifelong devotion to cronyism is getting people killed

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Trump's lifelong devotion to cronyism is getting people killed
Business Insider

Trump's lifelong devotion to cronyism is getting people killed
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the beginning of a meeting with his son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and government cyber security experts in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 31, 2017.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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  • Trump has long relied on cronies who flatter him and put his interests first, no matter how unqualified they might be for their jobs.
  • When he was a businessman, putting crucial responsibilities on the shoulders of hapless sycophants only affected his bottom line. Now that he's leader-of-the-free-world, it's a life-and-death issue.
  • Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, has been running a shadow coronavirus task force that was supposed to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals and essential workers.
  • It failed, mostly because it was comprised of business people with no experience in science or medicine.
  • This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump trusts his cronies.

He relies on those who flatter him, never challenge him, and put his interests first. Qualifications are secondary, if considered at all.

His response to the pandemic has been no different, as cronies have presided over his administration's coronavirus response, to disastrous results.

It's not just that he's whittled down his cabinet and administration of any voices that put the country's interest ahead of his own, it's that the sycophants who remain have no business managing a health crisis.

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A history of loyalty over competence

Before he got in the leading-the-free-world business, he ran a "family business" called the Trump Organization.

The Trump kids obviously had a leg up on the competitions. but there were plenty of executives who, as The New York Times put it in 2016, "secured power not necessarily through fancy pedigrees or impressive credentials, but through decades of devotion to their boss."

One of these executives, Trump Organization chief operating officer, caught Trump's eye in 1981 "after Mr. Trump saw him eject some hecklers while working security at the United States Open tennis tournament," according to The Times.

Upon entering the White House, Trump made sure to bring cronies along for the ride.

Now Trump is presiding over a country undergoing the most devastating economic collapse (with no end in sight) since the Great Depression as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and instead of experts who could execute strategies to save lives, we're stuck with cronies..

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Catastrophe of the cronies

When Trump belatedly set up his coronavirus task force in late February, he put together a team where only four of the seventeen members had backgrounds in science or medicine. But he did include National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, a former Wall Street economist and CNBC host with a spotty at best track record on actually understanding the economy.

At the time of the appointment — again this is late February — Kudlow went on CNBC to assure the public that the administration had the virus contained "pretty close to airtight" and that any potential outbreak might be a "human tragedy" but probably not an "economic tragedy."

About two weeks later, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 a pandemic, and the unraveling of the economy began. It continues unabated two months later.

Though Vice President Mike Pence is officially in charge of the administration's task force, Trump's ultimate crony, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been running his own "shadow" task force.

It's not the first time Kushner, the rich kid who failed in his own attempt at real estate baronhood, has been tasked by the president with leading sweeping projects far above his pay grade.

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Kushner's unofficial task force consists of a volunteer squad of business associates. They've been focused on maintaining and strengthening supply chains during the pandemic, particularly the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals and essential workers.

The idea was that these bright young captains of industry would be able to use their private sector ingenuity to cut through the red tape inherent in government bureaucracy. And because they're volunteers and not paid employees of the government, they are essentially not subject to oversight.

The volunteers, who Kushner calls "true patriots," have failed spectacularly.

As The Times reported, Kushner's team "had little to no experience with government procurement procedures or medical equipment." Some "were told to prioritize tips on PPE availability from political allies and associates of President Trump" — including Fox News hosts Brian Kilmeade and Jeannine Pirro, the young Trumpist activist Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, and "a former "Apprentice" contestant who now works for the Trump campaign.

Almost none of the leads panned out. At least one led to a $69 million contract that yielded no equipment at all.

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The incompetence so appalled Dr. Richard Bright of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (which reports to the Department of Health and Human Services) that he filed an 89-page whistleblower complaint. Bright is scheduled to testify before a House committee this Thursday.

This isn't a business

Trump, still obsessed with his television ratings and distracted by his prolonged Twitter rages, is failing pretty much every test of leadership during a global catastrophe. But if he were merely asleep at the wheel and left the machinery in the hands of capable people, the government's pandemic response might not be failing so appallingly.

Former FEMA deputy administrator Tim Manning told the Times, "There's an old saying in emergency management — disaster is the wrong time to exchange business cards."

Trump's penchant for cronyism kept him insulated from reality as a businessman, and perhaps as a result, his track record in business is little more than a long list of failures. To survive these financial calamities, Trump relied on bankruptcy, celebrity, and just stiffing the people who worked for him.

There's no hiding from the consequences of the pandemic. And it's not just contractors and creditors who are getting hurt by Trump's incompetence, it's the entire country.

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In the age of the coronavirus, Trump's unqualified cronies are wasting precious time and resources. Lives are at stake and the margin for error is minuscule.

From the breakdown of the PPE supply chain, the failure to set up a broad and effective testing system, and the prioritization of keeping the economy going over issuing social distancing guidelines — Trump's "best people" have shown they're completely in over their head. The US response to the coronavirus was one of the worst in the world.

The difference between basic competence and whatever it is we have now has caused an unnecessary loss of life.

If he were capable of admitting his own fealty, he'd admit his "best people" have failed and prioritize the guidance of experts — or at least, the experienced — in the fields of science and medicine.

But that's not who Trump is. He doesn't make mistakes, in his own mind.

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The facts don't lie, though. Trump's cronyism is dangerous and costing lives.

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