Trump's Eyes and Ears At NASA
White House installs political aides at Cabinet agencies to be Trump’s eyes and ears, Washington Post
“This shadow government of political appointees with the title of senior White House adviser is embedded at every Cabinet agency, with offices in or just outside the secretary’s suite. The White House has installed at least 16 of the advisers at departments including Energy and Health and Human Services and at some smaller agencies such as NASA, according to records first obtained by ProPublica through a Freedom of Information Act request. These aides report not to the secretary, but to Rick Dearborn, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, according to administration officials. A top Dearborn aide, John Mashburn, leads a weekly conference call with the advisers, who are in constant contact with the White House. The aides act as a go-between on policy matters for the agencies and the White House. Behind the scenes, though, they’re on another mission: to monitor Cabinet leaders and their top staffs to make sure they carry out the president’s agenda and don’t stray too far from the White House’s talking points, said several officials with knowledge of the arrangement.”
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Keith’s note: FYI Rick Dearborn used to work for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and it is the Alabama mafia inside the Trump Administration that is holding up the naming of a new NASA Administrator (among other things).
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Dimock is apparently so “extraordinaire” that the only reference I can find to him in New Hampshire media other than the simple note that he was a “Trump Field Representative”, is that he got a traffic ticket almost 20 years ago. NH is a small place, you don’t have to be _that_ extraordinary in business or politics to get noticed there….
It does appear that he ran some sort of car wash / detailing service, from business records that came up.
https://www.moreopp.com/com…
Why is this all being portrayed as so mysterious? One of the things you get when you win the Presidency is control of the executive branch. Putting interim people to monitor the agency and make sure it does what the Administration wants is actually normal. As for the “Alabama Mafia” holding up the naming of a NASA Administrator – compared to what? So far this is not taking unusually long (for NASA anyway) and if they are people put there by the white house to recommend a NASA administrator, why is that a nefarious thing attributable to a mafia? For that matter, with Alabama, Mississippi, etc. forming a core of Trump’s supporters, why is it surprising that that Administration figures, like Sessions, from that area would be consulted? Are you expecting George Whitesides or Charles Miller to get the job?
The story also mentioned similar oversight for the departments of Energy and Health and Human Services. Mr. Trump’s appointments for the secretaries of those departments have already been confirmed by congress. So this does not appear to be an interim measure.
I’m curious about the legal details of such a position. Since these “advisors” are not confirmed by Congress, there must be limits on what the can do. They couldn’t, for example, make all the decisions and have the secretary (or administrator) sign the paperwork. But this seems to be novel enough that the details may not have been worked out.
Again, I’m not sure how new this is for NASA; when Bolden and Garver went to NASA (both confirmed appointees, George Whitesides was Chief of staff – a politico appointed to watch over Bolden.
We’ve got a KGB-like “political officer”, being paid by tax dollars, at HQ? And his job is to make sure no one at HQ tells the truth (I guess??).
“… Alabama mafia inside the Trump Administration that is holding up the naming of a new NASA Administrator.” Alright Keith, I give up. Why?
Wouldn’t one assume it’s to push SLS /Lockheed/Boeing/Orbital ATK at the expense of NewSpace?
Mixed feelings on this:
– remember “Hunt For Red October”? The officer charged with watching Captain Marko Ramius (Ironically named Ivan Putin as I recall)? That was my first thought;
– on the other hand, what’s wrong with a president having eyes and ears, assuring himself that his policies are correctly interpreted?
– nothing; which is why it’s so important to appoint competent and trustworthy people, which implies
– poor levels of trust, and
– incompletely comprehending the chain of command, particularly when administrating the gargantuan Federal government;
– a gut-level distrust of the Federal government.
The last is most likely what’s at work, and it is a feeling shared by many Americans.
Maybe this is commonly done by every president. Dunno.
At least with Obama, most of them were actually qualified in their fields. Who is this guy?
The article said that this was not done by Obama, W, or Clinton.
Yes, every president selects Cabinet secretaries, under secretaries, Agency directors, etc. What presidents haven’t done is install people for the sole purpose of watching those presidential appointments.
I know Jonathan from the racing world ironically and he’s actually a very decent person and have talked to him since he landed this position. I don’t get any of the vibe that this article or comments allude to.
Its true that EVERY administration has political appointees at agencies to facilitate the Executive Branch priorities at the agency. To term them as a ‘KGB political officer” is to not only degrade this great country of ours but to forget what a horrific tragedy and totalitarian society the Soviet Union was. I spent my fair share of time there and knew it well.
So give these guys some room to do their job and please ….. leave the KGB comparisons to something more appropriate.
Yea the KGB thing is a cheap shot. But WRT Dimock’s, his background in aerospace, commercial space and/or space science – and the management of large multi-billion dollar government organizations – or any organization of this size – is ….?
Keith – I always knew him as a data guy and had some data businesses going on. More of a startup kind of guy which is likely why he would call himself an entrepreneur. I suspect that he had a lot to do with data operations in the Trump campaign based on what I know. He was in SoCal for a while which is where I met him racing. Was surprised to see that he ended up as the White House Liason to NASA.
You are not the only person who was surprised to see him show up at NASA. No one at NASA is exactly sure what he does. I’m sure he’s a nice guy but no one who I have talked to has any indication that he really knows how NASA works or what NASA does other than all that space stuff.
So, basically a guy who worked in the campaign; after the election, they looked around for a reward?
“Hey, I know! Let’s stick him over at NASA!”
Maybe the post of Ambassador to Luxembourg was already taken.
I don’t know the ‘racing world’ at all but I *do* know the national security – foreign policy world very well, and space policy moderately well.
Everything I am reading and hearing is that the Trump admin starkly stands out from Obama or Bush in the use of these WH moles in agencies: more of them, more intrusive behavior by them, less cooperation and trust from them towards their agency peers, more of a direct reporting line to the WH political staff, more emphasis on policing political/personal loyalty than policy consistency, and especially, much much less background in the substance of their assigned agency’s mission or prior experience in large-organization management.
Well I’m sure you’re right then – he’s KGB and this was part of the Russian plot to install communist apparatchiks in all of the US agencies to control them.
Since you alone have personal contact with him, please fill us in on his positions and goals regarding government research, development, and science at NASA. Naturally we are interested in his positions on NASA environmental research and NASA goals for aviation and space technology, planetary science, and human spaceflight.
I’m sure there are other people in the world that know him besides me. I have been in the space industry 30 years and knew him from another independent domain. Honestly, since we knew each other outside of this, I never spoke about his opinions on all the things you list. On the other hand isn’t that more of a White House policy direction than the Liason function to make all of that up ?