Christie viewed Jared as one of those people who thinks that, because he’s rich, he must also be smart. Still, he had a certain cunning about him. And Christie soon found himself reporting everything he did to prepare for a Trump administration to an “executive committee.” The committee consisted of Jared, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Paul Manafort, Steve Mnuchin, and Jeff Sessions. “I’m kind of like the church elder who double-counts the collection plate every Sunday for the pastor,” said Sessions, who appeared uncomfortable with the entire situation.
The elder’s job became more complicated in July 2016, when Trump was formally named the Republican nominee.
….
Bannon stepped off the elevator to find the governor of New Jersey seated on a sofa, being hollered at. Trump was apoplectic, actually yelling, “You’re stealing my money! You’re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this??” Seeing Bannon, Trump turned on him and screamed, “Why are you letting him steal my fucking money?” Bannon and Christie together set out to explain to Trump federal law. Months before the election, the law said, the nominees of the two major parties were expected to prepare to take control of the government. The government supplied them with office space in downtown Washington, DC, along with computers and trash cans and so on, but the campaigns paid their people. To which Trump replied, “Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money.” Bannon and Christie tried to explain that Trump couldn’t have both his money and a transition.
“Shut it down”, said Trump. “Shut down the transition.”
Here Christie and Bannon parted ways. Neither thought it was a good idea to shut down the transition, but each had his own misgivings. Christie thought that Trump had little chance of running the government without a formal transition. Bannon wasn’t so sure if Trump would ever get his mind around running the federal government: he just thought it would look bad if Trump didn’t at least seem to prepare. Seeing that Trump wasn’t listening to Christie, he said, “What do you think Morning Joe will say — if you shut down your transition?” What Morning Joe would say — or at least what Bannon thought it would say — was that Trump was closing his presidential transition office because he didn’t think he had any chance of being president.
Trump stopped hollering. For the first time he seemed actually to have listened.
“That makes sense,” he said.
From “The Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis
The Fith Risk, by Michael Lewis looks at the transition process and the beginning of the Trump administration. The first chapters of the book from where these excerpts were taken are brilliant in typical Lewis style.
The rest of the book is not so good (a disappointment coming from Lewis) as it is biased against cuts in state agencies which are a matter of political opinion. Some will be for, others will be against.