The Trump White House is tainted by criminality and chaos

Donald Trump’s White House has become a revolving door for staffers and members of the administration. Seemingly every day a new person resigns or is fired for no apparent reason. Continuing on this new presidential tradition, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has just been fired. The stories are conflicting with the White House alleging he was told to leave last Friday, while insiders are saying it was only decided on March 13 and was possibly a result of Tillerson’s Russia remarks. Tillerson himself says he found out only through the President’s Twitter. Though this story would seem outlandish in any other administration, incidents like this have become commonplace in the Trump Administration.


In just over a year Trump has fired nine high ranking officials, and many more have resigned. It appears that anytime someone stands up to Trump, questions his decisions or engages or investigates his possible criminal activities, they are sacked. Notable examples include: Gary Cohn, who resigned after speaking out against tariffs on aluminum and steel imports as Trump’s economic advisor, top campaign advisor and monster Steve Bannon and FBI Director James Comey for not pledging loyalty.

Right now America has a commander-in-chief with the intention of becoming a despot. He has praised the leadership of authoritarian regimes like Russia and China multiple times, even saying, “Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,” in response to Xi Jinping consolidating power. While the judicial branch has done a mediocre job keeping him in check for the nation, no holds have been barred inside his administration. Examining his pattern in office and his praise for China, it is clear Trump possesses despotic aspirations. He lacks the skill or subtlety to do it, but will stop at nothing to assert himself as “the big man on campus.”

His dealings to achieve this have also come under scrutiny. Stormy Daniels’ issues aside, things are not looking good legally for Trump. Tuesday, Robert Mueller released an update on the Russian investigations. Names listed for questioning include Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions and Trump himself. These questions relate to meetings in Trump-owned properties with Russian agents, hacks at the Democratic National Convention and the transferring of money between possible Russian organizations to the Trump Organization facilitated through Deutsche Bank. Many are predicting Jeff Sessions will be fired soon, possibly in retaliation for recusing himself from the Russian investigation. Though nothing is concrete yet, these charges and questionings are near-damning.

The jury is out with whether or not Trump himself is directly implicated in these Russian dealings, but it is almost sure that at least some of his staffers and advisors are. The Trump White House is chaotic, messy and potentially a criminal enterprise right now. With a president acting more and more autocratic as investigations close in, no one can be certain of exactly what will happen next. 

This is an opinion and does not reflect the views of The Tulane Hullabaloo. Quinn is a freshman at Newcomb-Tulane College. He can be reached at [email protected]

Leave a Comment