How not to manage the federal bureaucracy
The trouble with governing from myth rather than fact is that you break that which isn’t broken and end up with the very opposite of what you set out to achieve.
The personnel decisions of the Trump administration are driven by the myth — repeated throughout the campaign and earlier in conservative circles — that the bureaucracy is an extra branch of government, powerful, left-leaning and determined to impede change.
Presidents, including political opposites Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, have run against Washington, and then grew the government. It is easy to say that the employees of the government are the problem; that fits with the myth.
The government workforce has no lobby, and its unions are limited in their power by law. They are subject to castigation by myth and have to take it in silence.
The myths about the bureaucracy are just that, myths. But they stifle good government. If you are told long enough that you are the problem, you might be tempted to act that out.
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/02/02/how-not-manage-federal-bureaucracy/
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