Sam Stein
THE PREVAILING WISDOM about Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office is that he is, to borrow a cliché, flooding the zone—releasing a torrent of information that overwhelms even the most seasoned political observer.
The real story of Trump 2.0 is exactly the opposite.
White House operations have so far been defined not by the spotlight they’ve commanded but by the secrecy they’ve imposed. People inside and outside of government are confused about who is staffing—or even leading—agencies. Federal employees have been thrust into a state of paranoia about the status of their jobs. Even lawmakers say they are utterly in the dark, unable to reach contacts at federal agencies to get key information about which parts of the government are functioning and which aren’t.
“There’s no clarity about which federal funds are frozen and which are left untouched,” Rep. Ritchie Torres told The Bulwark in an interview. “I’m not aware of any member of Congress who has been—any Democratic member of Congress—who’s been kept in the loop about the scope of the executive order.”
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