Posted originally on the CTH on July 31, 2024 | Sundance
For the past several weeks and months I have been asked to present thoughts on potential candidates for offices in/around the Trump administration if they can achieve victory in the 2024 election. Essentially, if Trump wins, “who” would be best in “what” positions?
I have been extremely reluctant to put something together like this because ultimately, I look at the challenges with a different perspective. Additionally, I am not confident that key people understand the complexity of the problem and as a result would not absorb the context of any suggestions I might offer. However, after careful thought, prayer and reflection, a slight change in the presentation might actually be beneficial.
In the next few weeks, I am going to write very specifically about who might be best suited for roles and responsibilities. Not from the perspective of the person per se’, but rather from the perspective of a fully understandable context for the position; the reality of what can be pragmatically accomplished, and detailed reasoning for why the challenge they will face exists.
This first introduction of sorts is a beginning with the end in mind, an introduction.
It is NOT my intent to provide a private list of recommendations. What I want to do is set the cornerstone of how each role can predictably be anticipated to engage with each challenge, and ultimately what I believe they will have to do in order to make progress. This is a public series of non-pretending presentations, where all of the traditional civic perspectives that people have might be challenged.
Roles and responsibilities are only valuable if we define and accept the problem from the same perspective. It is with that thought in mind that such an undertaking begins.
If successful in the 2024 election, President Trump will have one 4-year term to begin charting a new course within our government.
President Trump cannot be expected to fix or repair all of the damage created within our Constitutional Republic in one term. However, it is possible for President Trump to set the cornerstones in place that ensure the greatest likelihood of success for a modern restoration.
I am not going to repeat the background context for how the current landscape was created. That is available HERE, within the discussion of the Fourth Branch of Government. Under the CTH category filing system in the right-hand margin, you will now find a sub-category “2025 – Term 2” under the primary category “President Trump.” All of these articles will be filed there, as published.
The current staffing challenge is about removing the cancerous cells that have been seeded deep within the institutions.
The Intelligence Community created the disease, then used the politicians to sell the cure.
In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose. Then things went sideways… (more)
The challenge is obviously multifaceted with three infected systems, branches, attacking both domestic and foreign policy against the interests of the American people. President Trump can address the Executive Branch directly; all other aspects are ancillary to the executive policy. The Legislative Branch fix is then dependent on We The People, and the Judicial Branch fix is an outcome of both.
Within the staffing question, we must begin with a common understanding. Domestically we have authorities created by the Patriot Act, ODNI and DHS to contend with. Externally we have the State Dept and CIA collaboration that also feeds into the larger operational missions of the Intelligence Community. It is this IC that now dominates all issues of consequence, and it is from this perspective we must first address any restoration context.
♦ Executive Policy – Domestic Consequences. There are five or six key positions, most of them holding deputy positions in support. Again, this is from my own boots on ground review, real-time research shared, understandings discovered, and earnest challenges identified.
Within the executive branch, directly connected to the office of the presidency, the six primary domestic IC-centric positions of consequence are:
President Trump Emissary – no confirmation needed.
President Trump National Security Advisor – no confirmation needed.
White House Counsel – no confirmation needed.
Director of the Office of National Intelligence (DNI).
Director of the National Security Agency (NSA).
Secretary of the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS)
And then come the Secretary of State (DoS), and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These two are combined because they operate collaboratively as one larger silo with two divisions.
Like a restaurant with a front dining room (State Dept.) and a back kitchen (CIA). The front is visible, the back is not visible. The front cannot function without the back, and the back is dependent on the front for business pretenses. The front is the head, the back is the neck. I am pulling DoS and CIA out of the domestic aspect, along with the Defense Dept (DoD) for a reason that will be identified later.
Overall, each of these BIG silos operates what we call the “National Security” system. They have smaller silos within them, but generally for the intents of the first few positions, these are the critical parts. Emissary, NSA, White House Counsel, ODNI and NSA.
Already, you are probably saying, “wait, what is this emissary thing?” Good. That’s part of the dropping civics non-pretense.
President Trump had before, and will even more critically need again, an exceptional emissary who can convey his thoughts, words and intents to other people – unincumbered by the system itself.
Without the emissary, the embeds within the current national security system will build walls to keep the office of the president isolated.
Those who retain the silo process as an institutional construct to control events, must be confronted by using a process within a system they cannot control. The President must be able to reach out from his office without going through the national security matrix. That’s the importance of the emissary.
By now, everyone should understand the Trump Doctrine: “Economic Security is National Security.” Every successful outcome that benefits Americans comes from the expressed policy of using economics as a tool and a weapon to achieve security, domestically and abroad.
I am going to begin this series of staffing outlines with a discussion of the “Emissary.” Their role, their responsibilities, the challenges they face, the personal characteristics and traits needed, how they interact within the system and a full understanding of exactly how critical this person is for the voice of the office of the president.
Two Big Picture Contextual Articles:
Next, we begin the specifics. Who should be the emissary?
