The Bureaucracy and the Trump Administration Are Already Off to a Rough Start

Presidential transitions are always a time of apprehension and uncertainty for the career civil servants who keep the big machine of government running. President Donald Trump’s plans make this particular transition scarier than most. His performance at the CIA on Saturday, in particular, is an ominous sign.

Bureaucracy is often used as an epithet, usually conveying cautious, inefficient cadres that Trump considers part of the swamp he plans to drain. But in reality, bureaucrats are the career civilian workforce—2.5 million strong across the U.S., in Washington agencies and abroad—who keep the U.S. government functioning. Not always efficiently or transparently, to be sure, but most of the time, these workers are providing essential services to citizens. In the presidential transition, they are a source of continuity, expertise and institutional memory as the new administration fills political slots and determines its policy priorities. ...