To hear the White House tell it, there’s a complex crisis unfolding at the border. So why is Trump preoccupied with paint colors and the shape of bollards?
There are different explanations for why Jimmy Carter’s presidency wasn’t a success, but one of the principle criticisms of the Georgia Democrat was his micromanaging tendencies. So much of the American presidency is about delegating and making sound judgments about what matters and what doesn’t. It was a part of the job Carter famously struggled with.
This came to mind reading the Washington Post’s new report on Donald Trump giving his team hyper-specific directives on the details of the administration’s new border fencing.
The article paints an almost comical picture of an obsessed president, barking instructions about the color of the barriers. And the shape of their tips. And their height. And what they should be called. And the number of gates. And the size of the gates. And the construction schedule. And “the minutiae of contracts.”
The Republican’s instructions haven’t just been delivered in some kind of White House memo. No, that would be too easy.
