Trump Transition Off to a Rocky Start

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Eliot Cohen is no Dick Cheney, but he is a longtime neocon who acted as a cheerleader for the Iraq War and just wrote a book subtitled The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force. In other words, not a guy who shies away from a tough-minded foreign policy. And yet, today he said this:

Cohen was a pretty public #NeverTrumper, so maybe this is nothing but personal animosity acting out. That happens all the time in Washington. Still, Trump’s staffing decisions so far have all put power solely into the hands of loyalists who worked with him during the campaign, and most of the talk about future picks has been the same. There’s not much sense that he’s yet willing to branch out and choose experienced people who don’t have any particular personal loyalty to him. In addition, the New York Times reports that Mike Pence’s transition operation isn’t going too well:

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition operation plunged into disarray on Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of Mike Rogers, who had handled national security matters, the second shake-up in a week on a team that has not yet begun to execute the daunting task of taking over the government.

…Mr. Pence took the helm of the effort on Friday after Mr. Trump unceremoniously removed Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who had been preparing with Obama administration officials for months to put the complex transition process into motion. Now the effort is frozen, senior White House officials say, because Mr. Pence has yet to sign legally required paperwork to allow his team to begin collaborating with President Obama’s aides on the handover.

Stay tuned.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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