‘Fight club mentality’: Why Trump is insisting on not giving ‘scalps’ to his opponents

During his chaotic first term as president, Donald Trump clashed with many of the traditional conservatives he appointed to key positions — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Trump fired many of his officials, while others resigned in frustration.Trump’s second term is also chaotic, but in a different way. The president has made a concerted effort to fill his second administration with loyalists, and according to Semafor reporters Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett, he is trying to avoid firings this time.In an article published on March 28, Talcott and Everett explain, “This year has already brought negative headlines that, during the president’s first term, could easily have led to sackings — from Elon Musk paring back Social Security to a stock market that dipped into correction territory to the ongoing drama known as Signalgate. But the heads aren’t rolling in his administration. Trump has, his first term adviser Steve Bannon said, learned the lesson of a term during which the president dismissed personnel quickly and often for controversies or missteps — including Bannon himself, famously fired in 2017. This time, Trump doesn’t want to be seen as giving in to opponents.”READ MORE: ‘Game over’: Yale fascism expert moving to Canada because US is becoming a ‘dictatorship’Because of the so-called “Signalgate” scandal, many Democrats are calling for Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And some Trump allies are reportedly calling for National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to be fired. But so far, Trump is sticking with them.Bannon told Semafor, “The lessons of [former National Security Advisor] Mike Flynn are resonating in this.”According to Bannon, Trump is bringing a “no-scalps policy” to his second administration — which, he says, has a “fight club mentality.”An administration official, quoted anonymously, told Semafor that if Trump’s foes “taste blood in the water, it’s just a feeding frenzy.”READ MORE: ‘This is illegal’: Critics slam Musk for ‘bribing people to vote’ in key WI raceRead the full Semafor article at this link.

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