President Donald Trump’s latest move is seriously bad news for the Washington, D.C. bureaucrats that have spent decades stuffing their pockets with taxpayer dollars.
The president’s new announcement means the free ride is over. The time has come to drain the swamp.
Trump is set to order the creation of a new White House office run by Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, that has one goal: Completely overhaul the government using ideas from the business sector.
A senior administration official said Trump on Monday will announce the White House Office of American Innovation. The official sought anonymity to discuss the office in advance of the formal rollout.
“All Americans, regardless of their political views, can recognize that government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function, often creating widespread congestion and leading to cost overruns and delays,” Trump’s statement to The Washington Post said, who first reported the story. “I promised the American people I would produce results, and apply my ‘ahead of schedule, under budget’ mentality to the government.”
The innovation office will report directly to the president.
Among those working on the effort are National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, Dina Powell, senior counselor to the president for economic initiatives and deputy national security adviser, Chris Liddell, assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and Reed Cordish, assistant to the president for intragovernmental and technology initiatives. All have extensive business experience.
Trump is readying to announce the new office days after the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare” imploded in the House of Representatives, revealing deep divides between the establishment GOP and the White House.
This effort has been developing since shortly after the inauguration, the official said. The group has been meeting since then and started talking to CEOs from various sectors about ways to make changes to federal programs. Areas they hope to tackle include overhauling Veterans’ Affairs, improving workforce development and targeting opioid addiction.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner and has a West Wing office but no official job, will get involved on issues she is focused on, such as workforce development.
The Associated Press contributed to this article