Posted originally on the CTH on August 5, 2024 | Sundance
There are many very important positions related to the expectations we hold for President Trump. Having spent years deep inside the actual workings of the current professional DC silos, I can tell you most of those expectations are very challenging to achieve.
In one 4-year term President Trump can set the cornerstone for a reconstruction effort that will take at least 15 years. [Reference, Team Obama used 18+ years to create it (January 2007 to present)].
In this series my goal is more to describe the needs of some critical positions from a very practical, non-pretending, perspective of what happens within specific offices. I already discussed two critical positions that do not require IC approval (Emissary and NatSec Advisor) today I outline a third, the White House Counsel.
The Office of White House Counsel does not need IC/Senate approval.
The Office of the White House Counsel (WHC) is the gatekeeper to the Office of the President. The White House Counsel does not represent Donald Trump; the WHC represents the office of the presidency and the person fulfilling the duty of the presidency. For the interests of an effective White House Counsel, who is president is irrelevant; they are guarding the office.
The WHC is critical because it is the advice and opinion of the lawyer in this role who can completely hamstring a President, block a President and ultimately control a President. The WHC also party controls access to the Office of the President, if the person seeking access is determined detrimental to the “office of the president.”
Essentially a legal gatekeeper, with the job to protect the office of the President (not Donald Trump the person), the White House Counsel is very critical. Understanding that lawyers in general are averse to risk, and understanding a White House primary lawyer would be exceptionally averse to risk, most White House counsel office holders are predisposed to create the concentric circles of protection around the office.
The WHC coordinates the collapse of the concentric circles when major crisis unfolds. Starting on the perimeter the WHC organizes the people who will take responsibility for a major problem, with the goal in mind to keep the collateral damage as far away from the office as possible. Like a mob lawyer, the consigliere will tell a person when they must take the blame -self immolate- and exit the White House for the good of the office etc.
That said, there was a very important facet to the White House Counsel’s office that failed in Trump’s first term. This failure cannot be repeated.
In Term-1 the opinion of the White House Counsel was to block all declassification efforts that did NOT have the full support of the Intelligence Community (IC). The IC always knows the White House is averse to risk and the IC weaponize the fear of the WHC against the office of the President.
The declassification process is a request by an agency, including a superior agency like the President of the United States, to the Intelligence Branch asking for them to release the information. The Intelligence Branch again holds full unilateral control. If the head of the CIA refuses to comply with the declassification instruction of the President, what can the president do except fire him/her? {Again, GO DEEP} How does the President replace the non-compliant cabinet member? They have to go through the SSCI confirmation. See the problem?
In Term-1 the IC message to the WH Counsel was that if Donald Trump declassified any documents, they would use the DOJ (special counsel weapon) to attack the office of the president for “obstructing justice.” The WHC was fraught with fear over what would happen and demanded that POTUS Trump stop trying to declassify information/documents the IC didn’t support.
The IC was trying to take out Donald Trump and the WHC in essence supported their objective because the WHC is only focused on threat mitigation. In term-2 these threats are going to be of even greater significance. The IC is now in a zero-sum game.
If Trump wins, they are potentially going to be removed. Ergo, the IC will do anything to stay in power. It is exceptionally critical the next term Trump White House Counsel understand this. The next WHC needs to be as brave as they are legally smart and strategic.
The next WHC needs to be brave for the office, empowering for President Trump, and stand as a flea against a furnace created by the IC and Lawfare system if that’s what they need.
The next WHC needs to look carefully at the recent SCOTUS decision about the unilateral power of the President within the Executive Branch and lean heavily into that decision; fully extending the power and influence of the Office of the President against the full system of every Executive Branch agency. Each silo needs to be confronted, and it is going to take a very bold WHC to support this effort.
The recent Supreme Court decision gives tremendous power, ABSOLUTE POWER within the Executive Branch, to the office of the President. This is not a time for the WHC to be timid, afraid or risk averse. This is a time for the WHC to spread the wings of the Eagle and sharpen the talons for use against corrupt and weaponized agencies. In short, go on the attack.
Strategic support for the goals and objectives of the President and National Security Advisor, should be the primary filter of consideration for the White House gatekeeper. They must be smart, killer smart; brutally strategic; cunning and fully versed in how the dark arts will come against them. Prior experience as a target by the same system they now confront should be considered an asset.
The person filling the role of WHC must have exceptional constitutional knowledge and capabilities to guide and counsel the key people in/around the office of the President. Not with the intent to stop the objective, but with the intent to support the objective by telling the scouts and strategic weapons “what” they will face and “where.”
There are some really good lawyers who can fill this role; however, every top-tier candidate must be filtered through the prism of stability, background, the lack of attack vectors against them and keen judgement in all facets of prior political experience. They must also have a disposition of attack, not defense. The WHC needs to push forward, not guard as much.
For this reason, I would love to see a brilliant and snarky lawyer like Eric Dublier take the job; but, I doubt he would take it. Another strong possibility would be John Eastman.
John Eastman has been the target of the weaponized IC and Lawfare. He has a brilliant mind, strong constitutional understanding, and, well, perhaps most importantly, he has a personal reason to be pissed off about the current status of our Executive Branch agencies. In the position of White House Counsel, John Eastman esq would trigger spontaneous ‘splodey heads just from the announcement itself.
A collaboration between John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark would be good strategic positioning. However, President Trump needs to be keenly aware that a team of “professionally republican advisors” will try to steer his options toward lawyers they know will retain the statu quo.
Next position will be the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the first position that needs Senate Confirmation.
RESOURCES:
Centinel2012 