Inside the White House Plan to Plant Cronies All Over

Some within the Trump administration have espoused giving the president near-absolute control over the federal workforce, a step that could backfire anytime the White House is held by the opposing political party. According to an internal 2017 White House to-do list, first mentioned by the New York Times and obtained by POGO, one Trump appointee proposed exploring legal theories that the “president [has] inherent authority to dismiss any federal employee,” unconstrained by whistleblower and other statutory protections passed by Congress. That would mark a break with the way America’s system of government has functioned for over a century.