David Bernhardt was the top Interior Department official in the Bush administration, watching procedures languish for weeks and months before receiving a final OK signal from the White House.
When he joined the Trump administration, he expected the same drawn-out process meant to eliminate controversial decisions and those that embarrass the president.
So, imagine his surprise when he was called into the Oval Office after the resignation of President Donald Trump’s first interior chief, Ryan Zinke, and the president handed him the keys to the department.
“You’ve been running the ship for a while. Do you have any questions?” Trump asked.
Bernhard cleared his throat, “Who do I report to?”
In a scene similar to many on Trump’s old reality TV show The Apprentice, the president gave Bernhard a quizzical look and replied, “You report to me.”
In his book about how political appointments are won in Washington, he writes, “Walking back to Interior’s massive headquarters on C Street, I realized that if the president’s words were true, my tenure, however short, would have been very different. The two I served in the George W. Bush administration From Secretaries.
After a while, he gave his answer. A few days later, the government went into a partial shutdown when Trump and congressional Democrats deadlocked over the budget, and Bernhard came up with a plan to use the impounded funds to open some parks.
Better to get Bernhardt Trump’s blessing, knowing it would be controversial. He dialed the White House and asked for the president. He hesitantly explained to the president’s personal assistant that Trump told him to call if he ever needed anything. Then he said, “Maybe you can send me someone I really want to talk to about stuff like this.”
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The aide nodded and within minutes, Trump was on the phone.
Bernhard told Secrets that Trump first asked why the Interior Department wasn’t already spending the money. Then, when told it would be controversial, Trump stepped in to take the heat. “You could say Trump ordered it,” the president said.
“I said, ‘Excuse me?’ He said, ‘Look, you’re the new guy. If it gets hot, you should say that Trump ordered you to do it,'” Bernhard said in an interview.
He said to me, “That’s the opposite of what the President of the United States says, right? ‘I want to get away from this as much as possible,’ he had to say. So, it’s wonderful for me.”
In the months that followed, Bernhardt wrote in You Report to Me: Accountability for the Failing Administrative State, It Happened Again and Again, Trump Style, Trump Inc. Heralded within and featured on The Apprentice led to believe that it led to success.
“I bet you we can be more productive in four years of the Trump administration than we were in eight years of the Bush administration,” Bernhardt said.
He said it helped build loyalty and trust, tricking departments at all levels, led by secretaries, into believing Trump could do their job and implement his presidential agenda.
He left a meeting with Trump and the president said, “David, you’re running that department. If you have something to do, you don’t really need to call. can You tell me about it? But you don’t have to wait.
Bernhardt said, “What person in a management role anywhere in the world doesn’t want to hear that from their boss? You want to feel empowered. You want to know they have your back. And you want to ‘accomplish things.’ Now, find another president who does that in my lifetime. Find me.