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There have been many books written about chaos and dysfunction at the Trump White House. Michael Lewis' latest book examines areas of the federal government that do not hold as much attention, such as the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy.
Stories begin during the transition between jurisdictions – and read in almost the same way across government agencies.
"Before the elections, the Obama administration had spent nearly a year and a thousand people creating the best course ever created on the functioning of the federal government and on the problems that arose in each of these departments. "said Mr. Lewis. All things Considered, "with the idea that the day after the elections, hundreds of members of the new administration would come, attend information meetings and discover the problems and how they were resolved.
"And the Trump administration just did not show. I mean, across the government, the parking spaces were empty, and the pretty little sandwiches that had been arranged were not eaten, and the notebooks remained unopened – at the point of a few months later, I am the first person to have heard the briefing that the Trump administration was supposed to have. "
When the administration finally sent people, there was a tendency in the designation of people.
"Everyone who came forward was a Trump loyalist," says Lewis. "And very few of them had any qualifications for the jobs they were sent in. And the spirit with which they approached was a kind of vague hostility to the company."
Michael Lewis's book is calling The fifth risk.
Highlights of the interview
About what happened at the Ministry of Energy
The Energy Department could be called the Department of Nuclear Weapons – I mean, that's where nuclear weapons are tested, that's where they're assembled; I mean, the stock is overseen by the Ministry of Energy.
They are in shock when, the day after the election, no one shows up. And they are shocked when the nuclear weapons officer puts away his boxes and goes home without anyone saying anything and no one replaces him.
A month after the elections, the Trump people eventually sent a guy, who was a lobbyist in the fossil fuel industry – who was there primarily to root out any interest from the Energy Department for climate change and development. alternative energies.
But he comes for an hour, listens politely and goes away. And so the whole conversation that could have taken place on how we manage the nuclear stock did not really take place.
And then a little later, a group of young people who were personally linked to the Trumps – friends of the sons of the Trumps, for example – begin to appear in the department …
Outgoing people generally had the impression that a) Trump administration had no idea what it was doing and b) was not very curious to know.
Why most Americans should care
For example, in the Ministry of Commerce, there is the national meteorological service. The National Meteorological Service has, in recent decades, been extremely effective in predicting the weather that it was doing. … And that saves lives – a lot lives – every year with hurricane and tornado forecasts.
Barry Myers, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, appointed by Trump, was formerly President and CEO of AccuWeather. His company sought to prevent the national weather service from communicating directly with the public so that its businesses and others could do so. He is now supervising the NWS.
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Barry Myers, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, appointed by Trump, was formerly President and CEO of AccuWeather. His company sought to prevent the national weather service from communicating directly with the public so that its businesses and others could do so. He is now supervising the NWS.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
The person appointed by the Trump administration to handle this operation [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service] is the CEO of AccuWeather – who has been campaigning for two decades to prevent the National Meteorological Service to communicate with the American public so that AccuWeather can earn more money by doing so.
It is a disaster for anyone on the road to the weather.
So, it's important – it's important lot – who is in these places. And it's a problem when the person knows nothing; it is an even bigger problem when the person is incited to spoil everything.
On the "positive side of ignorance"
If you want to do things like eliminate investments in alternative energy to generate short-term profits for the fossil fuel sector; if you want to eliminate the ability of the National Weather Service to communicate with people so that they make a profit for AccuWeather – it's really worth not thinking too much or knowing too much about the long-term costs of this. you are doing. Because you can just focus on short-term gains.
And I think that the way the government heads the government is an important theme: it looks for many short-term successes at the expense of the long run, and assuming we simply do not pay much attention to the long run. term. And I think that the agreement that they make with their conscience is easier to do because they simply do not understand the long term.
The ease with which a new administration could solve these problems
We currently have an interesting problem because during the first year of Trump administration, 20% of senior officials have resigned. … These are people who really know, really know the jobs and the importance of these jobs. And on top of that, Trump still has not provided half of the 700 largest jobs of his own government. There has been a loss of expertise from the federal government.
The question is how difficult it would be to rebuild. I do not really know the answer – more difficult every day.
On the story that concludes the book, about a woman from Oklahoma who prayed for a tornado to destroy her barn
First, let's explain why Miss Finley wanted her barn to disappear: her husband was killed in the barn and she imagined that this act of destruction would ease her pain a little – she would not have to worry about it anymore. staring at the barn. And what she does not imagine is that the same tornado that will come to take her barn will destroy her house, and she did not want it.
And I thought it was a kind of beautiful metaphor of what Trump's voters imagine – the workings of their imagination or the human imagination. He imagines the destruction he wants; he imagines the destruction he wants Trump to inflict on things he does not like about the government.
He does not imagine all the collateral damage – he does not imagine the damage that he will actually cause. And I think this failure of the imagination lies somewhere in the center of what we are experiencing right now.
Sam Gringlas and Jessica Smith produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Patrick Jarenwattananon has adapted it for the Web.
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