Trump keeps trying to neuter the government’s watchdogs

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s cavalier handling of attack plans has led to the rarest of things these days: a Republican and a Democrat shaking hands across the aisle. 

Too bad for Hegseth that this unusual moment of bipartisanship came about because the GOP chair and the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services jointly asked the DOD acting inspector general to investigate Signalgate. Let’s hope this evaluation is a bit more thorough than that conducted by the White House, which consisted of nothing except declaring that the case was closed. 

The request went to the acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins, because President Donald Trump illegally fired the DOD’s inspector general, Robert Storch, in his mass purge of 17 inspectors general at the start of his term. Trump does have the authority to remove inspectors general, but only after giving Congress at least 30 days notice and providing a substantive rationale for the removal. Storch is now one of eight terminated inspectors general suing to be reinstated. 

Stebbins was named acting inspector general after Storch’s termination. You might wonder why Trump can’t just fire Stebbins to head off an investigation into Hegseth. Turns out it’s harder to remove an acting inspector general than it is an inspector general. 

The 2022 inspector general law requires the existing “first assistant” to take over if an inspector general is removed. That person can only be replaced by an inspector general confirmed by the Senate or a high-level employee who was in their role for more than 90 days in the year before the vacancy. Practically, what this means is that Trump isn’t easily able to axe Stebbins. 

Trump’s entire approach to his second term has been to simply remove anyone he wants whenever he wants, for any reason or for no reason at all. It’s an approach that explicitly, openly flouts the idea of checks and balances. It’s a suitable approach for kings but not so much for presidents in a democracy. 

Ultimately, this approach is unsustainable. It relies on Trump firing everyone who isn’t a complete toady. Anyone who is nonpartisan, anyone with expertise—these are not people Trump can have around. The very nature of an inspector general is to provide oversight informed by lengthy experience. When your goal is a root and branch dismantling of the administrative state, those people have to go. 

The problem here is that there aren’t enough true believers. Sure, Trump can stack agencies with loyalists like Hegseth, people whose principal value is a truly repugnant combination of viciousness, malleability, and unquestioning loyalty. Even with staffing cut to the bone by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, there still need to be some regular people who carry out the day-to-day work of government. But the day-to-day work of government involves both successes and setbacks, and Trump doesn’t believe he should ever have to experience the latter. 

This attitude is what drives things like last weekend’s suspension of career Department of Justice Attorney Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director of immigration litigation. Reuveni had been representing the government in Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit over his illegal deportation to El Salvador. 

The administration has already admitted Garcia’s deportation was a mistake but refuses to take any steps to return him. That didn’t come solely from Reuveni, though. 

The government filed a court declaration by ICE Acting Field Office Director Robert L. Cerna acknowledging Garcia was deported because of an “administrative error.” Reuveni had already signed off on some of the more egregious filings in the case, including one smugly explaining that the court had no jurisdiction to hear Garcia’s claims because he was no longer in the U.S 

Under questioning from the judge in the case, Reuveni had difficulty backing up the claim that the government could not return Garcia to the U.S. Reuveni also couldn’t answer a question regarding the government’s authority to seize Garcia. Reuveni’s real sin was admitting to frustration because he didn’t have the answers to those questions despite having asked his client, the government.

Reuveni was suspended for failing to “follow a directive” from superiors. Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a statement to The New York Times explaining that every DOJ attorney must “zealously advocate” on behalf of the government. Any attorney who failed to follow that would “face consequences.” 

It’s unclear what Bondi thinks Reuveni should have done differently, but it seems a lot like the answer is “lie to a federal judge.” 

For good measure, Reuveni’s boss, August Flentje, was also placed on leave for failing to supervise a subordinate—presumably Reuveni. Lest you think Flentje was some sort of bleeding heart leftover from the Biden era, he’s the attorney who defended the travel ban on behalf of the government during Trump’s first administration. 

Ideally, Trump would have a Justice Department stuffed only with people like Bondi and Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin. At least Bondi, who served two terms as Florida’s attorney general, has some practice experience, whereas Martin’s background is mostly a messy combo of authoring pro-Trump propaganda and adoring the Jan. 6 rioters. But as eager as Bondi and Martin are to do Trump’s bidding, they can’t stand in for the over 10,000 attorneys employed by the DOJ nationwide. 

Trump’s desire for absolute loyalty is bottomless. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about inspectors general or DOJ attorneys or the guy who brings Trump Diet Cokes every 10 minutes. 

Eventually, Trump will run out of goons who will reflexively back his every play, not because there aren’t a lot of amoral pro-Trump goons but because those goons aren’t necessarily eager to take random midlevel federal government gigs. For now, though, everyone’s job is precarious, subject to the whims of a mad king who believes he’s the smartest guy in the room and hates being told no.

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