Shakeup turns to purge in Trump administration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered the departure of U.S. Secret Service director Randolph “Tex” Alles Monday, the third senior official in the Department of Homeland Security to get the ax in the last week. That number gave cable news pundits license to use the word “purge.”
“The administration has put border security back on the front burner and moving into an election cycle, (Trump) wants to make sure he has people who are fully on board with his agenda,” GOP strategist and CNN contributor Alice Stewart told the Review-Journal. “Everyone agrees on the destination; there’s just disagreement on the journey to get there.”
The resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Sunday fit the pattern for Cabinet-level departures in the Trump administration: It was announced on Twitter. Unnamed sources whispered competing spin on who was behind the decision. And it created another vacancy in an administration known for record-setting turnover that does not augur well for Trump’s ability to find solid permanent replacements.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced no sympathy. “As Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen oversaw the implementation of the Trump Admin’s increasingly toxic anti-immigrant policies. That she is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House’s liking is deeply alarming,” she tweeted.
When Nielsen steps down on April 10, the administration will be home to a host of acting Cabinet members. Trump announced he would make Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan acting secretary of Homeland Security; he joins an acting chief of staff (Mick Mulvaney), acting Defense secretary (Patrick Shanahan), acting Interior secretary (David Bernhardt) and acting Office of Management and Budget chief (Russell Vought).
Trump has not revealed whom he will nominate to take the post permanently.
Nielsen’s departure represents the 14th Cabinet-level departure since January 2017, according to Brookings Institution senior fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas. By comparison, President Barack Obama saw seven Cabinet departures in his first full three years, and President George W. Bush saw four.
Nielsen’s resignation under pressure also represents the first time a Cabinet position in the line of succession has turned over twice, said Tenpas. (Nielsen became Trump’s second Homeland Security secretary in December 2017, after Trump promoted his first Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, to White House chief of staff.)
The good news, as Tenpas sees it, is that Trump’s replacements tend to be professionals with “substance expertise,” as opposed to Trump’s first Cabinet picks, many of whom were elected officials.
People whose names are being floated as permanent replacements include McAleenan; Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who dealt with border issues as Texas governor; former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; and Emilio Gonzalez, Miami’s city manager and former DHS undersecretary.
In a statement, Dan Stein, president of the pro-enforcement Federation for American Immigration Reform, cited Nielsen’s “lack of immigration enforcement experience and inability to implement the president’s ambitious agenda” as he called on Trump to pick a permanent successor “from outside the agency.”
“With the right person at the helm, there’s no need for an immigration czar,” Stein added, in a reference to an idea Trump had been floating prior to Nielsen’s resignation.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.
White House statement
"United States Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country. Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May."
-Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
