Inside the Beltway: News media obsesses over ‘chaos’ in the White House

NEWS AND OPINION:

’CHAOS’ BECOMES THE OPERATIVE WORD OF THE DAY

The latest press narrative against President Trump and his administration is to suggest that there is “chaos” in the White House. This hostile narrative is so strong and well organized that even the Democratic National Committee cited the phenomenon, identifying 11 news organizations which pushed dramatic “chaos” headlines. The White House is in “chaos.” The GOP is in “chaos.” Maybe chaos is in chaos too. It’s all strategic.

“Word of the week: Chaos,” the committee said in an outreach to Democratic voters, adding that “condemnation” of the president for one reason or another was also a preferred term.

But that is not how White House counselor Kellyanne Conway sees things. In a conversation with “Fox News Sunday,” she pointed out that the media conveniently has ignored such good news as the soaring stock market, or that levels of illegal immigration are dwindling with Mr. Trump at the helm. It’s the dramatic tales of chaos, condemnation or untoward behavior in the Trump administration that take precedence instead.

“This president should be respected and regarded as somebody who was always welcomed a diversity of viewpoints, ideas, individual backgrounds. And he will continue to do that,” Ms. Conway said, dismissing the fact that Mr. Trump prefers “a bunch of yes-men and women” on his staff.

“That is just not true. What he wants is to receive all of the input and ideas,” she continued.

“I appreciate the fact that the president surrounds himself with strong personalities. I mean, one of the dumbest criticisms I hear, particularly on TV — from people who have never worked in a White House, let alone this White House — it’s this idea that the president has nobody around him to tell him no, to disagree with him. That is simply not true. He invites disagreement and dissension. He also invites polite discussion, research and data and he weighs all the consequences and he’s always willing to learn,” Ms. Conway noted.

SIMPLE RECOMMENDATION

Talk radio host Michael Savage points out that President Trump has an interesting mix of political and cultural forces which help shape his personal ideology — a mix that includes family influences, an urbane and metropolitan background, and other factors. How do voters judge him?

“On the one hand, they think that Trump’s a conservative. On the other, they think he’s not a conservative. They don’t know what to make of him. That is a problem for him. He needs to clearly define his policies,” Mr. Savage noted in a newsletter to his national radio flock published Sunday.

“I think he needs to sit down with a 10-point agenda. Make it the Ten Commandments of Trump. Just make it simple. That’s how God did it. God could have written a thousand commandments, and people wouldn’t remember any of them,” the host added.

REINCE HAS A SAY

Outgoing White House chief-of-staff Reince Priebus had a gracious thing or two to say about President Trump, pointing out that the president has already appointed 27 federal judges, and signed 42 bills into law since taking office.

“I could tick of for an entire 10, 20 minutes the facts of what’s he’s accomplished and the amazing amount of work he’s done,” Mr. Priebus told Breitbart News on Saturday on SiriusXM. “The amount of bills he’s signed is more than any president in the last 50 years.”

EIGHT HOURS PLUS

Lawmakers might struggle with a persistent do-nothing image. But somebody in the nation’s capital is working. A lot.

“The traditional eight-hour workday may soon be the exception rather than the rule, and Washington, D.C. is paving the way for change,” says some new research from CareerBuilder, which operates multiple job recruitment sites in the U.S. and abroad.

“Seventy-three percent of workers in the nation’s capital think the traditional 9 to 5 work day is a thing of the past. This compares to 68 percent in both Boston and Los Angeles, and 66 percent in New York,” the organization notes.

And in other cities, 60 percent of Chicago workers say 9-5 days are a thing of the past, along with workers in Dallas (62 percent), Houston (58 percent), Miami and Philadelphia — both at 55 percent.

“Many companies fear that without a set schedule, employees will be distracted, not as engaged and less productive, but the opposite is often true. A trusting work environment breeds more-loyal employees and increases efficiency as long as there’s structure around it,” advises Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder.

CNN ADDRESSES ’WHY TRUMP WON’

Programming of note for Monday: CNN will air a special report at 10 p.m. ET simply titled “Why Trump Won,” hosted by Fareed Zakaria, who promises to explore the cultural factors involved in President Trump’s “historic” 2016 victory.

The program offer the details on how Mr. Trump has worked toward “closing the ultimate deal — winning the White House — for decades,” CNN explains in advance notes. “Zakaria reports on families falling apart: depression, drugs, desperation, and finally resentment taking root in some American communities, supplanting what had been flourishing middle class optimism.”

Some of the fare is bound to annoy Mr. Trump’s bedrock supporters. An interview with David Betras, chairman of Mahoning County Democratic Party in Ohio, reveals that the official is frustrated “that a man who uses gold-plated toilets” had such appeal to middle America’s voting public.

“But Betras feels Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lost as definitively as Donald Trump won in 2016,” CNN continues, noting that New York Times columnist David Brooks, “Trump ghost writer” Tony Schwartz and statistician and author Nate Silver are also among those who will weigh in.

POLL DU JOUR

• 71 percent of U.S. college and university business officers agree that higher education “is in the midst of a financial crisis.”

• 71 percent say their institutions would seek to increase overall enrollment.

• 64 percent agree that new sources of spending in the coming year will have to come from “reallocation.”

• 56 percent are confident their own institution would be “financially stable” in five years.

• 44 percent will try to reduce administrative positions at their campus.

• 23 percent say they are trying to curb tuitions discounts at their school.

Source: An Inside Higher Ed survey of 409 chief business officers from U.S. public and private colleges and universities conducted May 2-June 11 and released Friday.

• Polite applause, petty annoyances to jharper@washingtontimes.com