On Wednesday, White House officials said that they have removed several administrative appointees from the Trump administration. These people had been given posts on advisory boards of military service academies in the U.S. They were asked to resign, failing which they would be forced out from their positions.
A total of eighteen Trump appointees were asked to leave. Some of them posted screenshots of the letter, which said that they had to resign by 6 p.m., barring which they would be dismissed from their positions, on social media. The letter was sent by the White House.
Some of the prominent appointees include the following:
- Kellyanne Conway – former president Trump’s counselor
- Sean Spicer – former president Trump’s first press secretary
- Gen. H.R. McMaster – former President Trump’s second national security adviser
- Russell T. Vought – former director of White House Office of Management and Budget during the Trump administration.
During a White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki strongly refuted the suggestion that the advisory board positions faced the risk of being politicized. Psaki said that she will let others evaluate whether they think that Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer and others were qualified or not political to serve on the boards to which they had been appointed.
She added that the President’s qualification requirements were not their party registration. They were whether they were qualified to serve and whether they were aligned with the values of the present administration.
Some of these political appointees were given their appointments in December, while the presidential elections were held in November. This suggests that the former administration was putting in place their appointees before relinquishing power. Political parties, all over the globe, like to work with likeminded people and that is why the term political appointee exists? It reiterates the idea that the person appointed has similar views to the administration under which it works.
Almost every political party in the world sweeps away old appointees who are loyal to a former administration and aims to bring in new ones who will stay true to their particular ideology whether it is conservative, democratic, liberal, far right or far left.
