Trump Launching Assault Against "Disloyal" People-- Are Loyalty Oaths Next?

Since being acquitted by the Senate, Trump has embarked on a disturbing purge of anyone not deemed to be sufficiently loyal..  Last week, acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire was ousted for the crime of briefing lawmakers on Russia’s attempts to meddle in the 2020 election and replaced by loyalist Richard Grenell, who, by all accounts has approximately zero relevant experience.

Before that, decorated war veteran Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who cooperated with the impeachment investigation, was escorted out of the building and reassigned (his twin brother was removed from his job too).  U.S. attorney Jessie Liu was removed from the Andrew McCabe case and had her nomination for a top treasury role withdrawn.

Axios’s Jonathan Swan reports the White House and its allies have assembled “detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust—along with trusted pro-Trump people to replace them.”  These lists, created by a network of conservative activists called Groundswell that include Republican Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have made their way to Trump and shaped his views on who he can trust and who should be fired.

For instance, a memo on Liu laid out 14 reasons why she was unfit for the Treasury job Steven Mnuchin had selected her for and included the fact that she hadn’t acted on criminal referrals of some of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers.  In addition, the memo faulted Liu for recommending jail time for Michael Flynn (who, incidentally, pleaded guilty twice), and for holding a leadership role in a networking group characterized as “pro-choice and anti-[Samuel] Alito.”  Liu was also deemed disloyal because she didn’t indict former deputy FBI director and Trump enemy Andrew McCabe and dismissed charges against supposedly “violent inauguration protesters who plotted to disrupt the inauguration.”

Another terrifying memo written by Groundswell included a list of suggested hires previously rejected by the presidential personnel office-- including Sheriff David Clarke, who is recommended for a senior Homeland Security position, despite suggesting that habeas corpus be suspended and calling Black Lives Matter activists “subhuman creeps.”

As the New York Times noted over the weekend, “in some of the most critical corners of the Trump administration, officials show up for work now never entirely sure who will be there by the end of the evening—themselves included.”  Last week, John McEntee (Trump's former body man who was fired in 2018 but recently rehired) reportedly gathered White House liaisons from cabinet agencies and asked them to identify political appointees within the government believed to be anti-Trump, having been empowered by the president himself to get rid of the “bad people.”  As NYU professor Paul C. Light put it, “Trump appears to be launching the biggest assault on the nation’s civil service system since the 1883 Pendleton Act ended the spoils system.”