Kerby Anderson

When a new president is elected, he inherits an executive branch that is stocked with government workers from the previous administration. Sometimes the transition is very smooth. Think of the transition from Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush. Sometimes the transition is rough. That is what Donald Trump is experiencing. An article in the Washington Post described how federal workers are resisting the executive actions by President Trump and looking for ways to push back against his agenda. It explains how “federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives.” It goes on to tell about some in the federal government who “have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.” At one church near Washington, D.C. “dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forum to discuss their opposition to the Trump administration.” The federal bureaucracy and the civil service system are supposed to be nonpartisan so that employees are removed from politics and various partisan perspectives. But this time these federal employees seem determined to undermine the initiatives that President Trump wants to put forward. The federal bureaucracy seems stacked against him. The Hill newspaper covers the presidency and Congress. Their analysis last fall found that 95 percent of campaign donations from employees at 14 federal agencies went to Hillary Clinton. That probably explains why we are seeing lots of signs of resistance, from grumbling to angry opposition and even online posts that promise insubordination to new policies. Each day it is becoming clearer that President Trump will be facing lots of resistance to his policies within his own federal bureaucracy.