For the Trump administration, appointing board members may be an effective and little-noticed means of weakening a federal apparatus it fundamentally distrusts. His board appointments, many of which may outlast his presidency, could serve an internal Republican resistance to a future Democratic administration
WASHINGTON — On April 10, 2017, Daniel Jorjani, a top Interior Department political appointee, sent an email to Brian Hooks, president of the conservative Charles Koch Foundation, soliciting individuals to join the board of a charitable arm of the National Park Service.
“Someone who is going to thwart the mission of an organization — any organization, be it a government, for-profit or charitable entity — should not be on the governing board, the group tasked with ensuring the fiduciary and strategic success that furthers that mission,” said Doug White, a leading expert on the frequently contentious workings of corporate and philanthropic boards. “That’s like ‘Board Governance 101.
Some boards are permanent, while others are not. The National Space Council, which was created by George H.W. Bush, was disbanded by Bill Clinton, only to return more than two decades later under Trump. In the case of the Federal Reserve board of governors — which performs “monetary policy responsibilities,” alongside the Fed’s regional bank presidents — Trump attempted to fill vacant seats on that board with two of the most controversial nominations. One of those was Herman Cain, the pizza magnate and onetime Republican presidential candidate. Long-standing accusations of sexual misconduct against Cain did not appear to deter Trump.
That hardly soothes critics. Jayson O’Neill of the Western Values Project, which uncovered the Jorjani-Hooks emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, told Yahoo News the emails were proof that “the Trump administration is dead set on politicizing a board that should be solely focused on supporting America’s national parks.”
He did worry, however, that if Trump were to win a second term, the National Park Foundation board could potentially succumb wholesale to politics. Trump isn’t the first president to award donors with board membership, and James Pfiffner, a scholar of the presidency at George Mason University, explained that “board seats are often used to reward political allies, regardless of qualifications.”
Without discussing any specific names, Hamilton says that heading the intelligence panel is not “the business for an amateur” lacking significant experience. “I don’t want any president to play around with the intelligence community,” he adds. Obama had chosen an environmental policy expert from California to head the Council on Environmental Quality. She was eventually succeeded by an expert on public lands.
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