President Donald Trump Has a Major Human Resource Problem Amongst His Senior White House Staff

The past 24 hours have rocked the foundation of the inner circle of confidants and senior White House staff that U.S. President Donald Trump has surrounded himself with. Two separate, unconnected incidents, dealt a double-blow to the working of Trump’s staff. The first saw Trump’s son-in-law and Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner’s top security clearance downgraded. The second was the resignation of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks who Trump considers as one of his close confidants.

Jared Kushner’s Security Downgrade

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, have been Trump’s advisors/confidants since he embarked on the presidential campaign trail. After winning the Presidency, Trump brought the two of them into the West Wing as senior staff members. Kushner especially was given the responsibility for a myriad range of departments.

Despite a lack of previous government-work experience, Kushner was tasked with being the point man  for over two dozen countries. Kushner was made responsible for working on an Israeli-Palestine peace deal, he is also working on the opioid crisis in the country, has taken the lead on criminal justice reform efforts, worked as a liaison with the Muslim community in the U.S. prior to Trump’s swearing in and become an almost shadow secretary of state by frequently visiting the Middle East, China, Mexico and countries in South America.

The above responsibilities required that Kushner be given the highest level of security clearance which Trump pushed for when he brought in Kushner as an adviser. Kushner has since been operating on an interim clearance because the entire process can take months.

An initial security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. But the higher you go in the work chain, additional security clearances are required. There are four kinds of security clearance the U.S. Federal employees and officials are cleared with: confidential, secret, top secret and sensitive compartmented information (TP/SCI).

Kushner was operating with the Top Secret Clearance which "provides access to information or material that may cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed without authorization" and, Sensitive Compartmented Information which "provides access to all intelligence information and material that require special controls for restricted handling within compartmented channels."

Kushner’s security has been downgraded to ‘secret’ which means he will not be allowed to attend meetings or be given information that are classified as TP/SCI.

Kushner’s problem with security clearance is not a recent issue. Every candidate joining the U.S. Federal government has to submit a standard form, called an SF-86, which lists every job they’ve ever had, every place they've lived, every country they've visited, and a host of other minutiae, including contact information for neighbors and close friends. Because a security check can take from 90 to 120 days, while the government investigates everything on the SF-86, an "interim clearance" gets them in the door, so when they show up they can operate.

Kushner’s declarations flagged many undisclosed/ undeclared meetings. In initial filings to gain security clearances, he omitted more than 100 calls or contacts with foreign officials or entities and at least 70 assets, oversights he later blamed on inexperience and overwork. Those omissions included a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian operatives, and a meeting during the presidential transition with Sergey Gorkov, the head of the Russian bank Vnesheconombank, which is subject to U.S. sanctions.

Most recently, the U.S. intelligence community has gained the impression that officials from four different countries believe that Jared Kushner's intricate business arrangements, lack of experience and financial woes are factors which can be used to manipulate President Donald Trump's son-in-law. Kushner has also had contacts with foreign officials without coordinating with the U.S. National Security Council. According to an expert on VOA news, one of the primary criteria of the security vetting looks at lifestyle choices that could make a candidate vulnerable to blackmail.

Kushner’s downgrade will impact his work as a high-level liaison especially because a lack of top security clearance introduces the element of a lack of credibility. According to a report in CNN, Chris Hill, who was in charge of nuclear negotiations with North Korea during President George W. Bush's administration, said it would be nearly impossible to be effective without a full clearance. "You can do the job, but you can't do it well," Hill said. "Or rather, you can do the job, but you will do it badly." When it comes to classified information, Hill said, "you have to know as much as you can because the other side knows as much as they can."

The President's son-in-law is one of an estimated 100 White House staff to have their security clearance downgraded after the Staff Secretary Rob Porter fiasco. Porter was working on an interim clearance as well before it was revealed that he had been accused by his previous wives of domestic violence and abuse. The unearthing of Porter’s history has led to a relook at the security clearances of most staff working under Donald Trump at the White House.

Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director Resigns

Trump’s woes did not end with Kushner, as his Communications Director Hope Hicks announced her decision to leave the White House. Hicks is closely connected to the Porter scandal as she was in a romantic relationship with him and also reportedly handled the initial press releases that supported him while discounting the claim by his ex-wives. The final nail seemed to be her eight-hour testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. According to reports, Hicks admitted during her testimony that Trump sometimes required her to tell “white lies.”

Hicks’ is Trump’s fourth communications director in a year to leave her position. She is preceded by Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, and Anthony Scaramucci. Hicks has served the longest with 197 days under her belt.

Porter, Kushner and Hicks are among the many high-profile names that Trump surrounded himself with but have now become a liability which in turn is directly affecting his credibility as the Commander-in-Chief.

If one looks at numbers alone, Trump has seen a record number of people leave or be fired. Six of the 12 Tier One positions saw turnover (Reince Priebus, chief of staff; Katie Walsh, deputy chief of staff; Sean Spicer, press secretary; George Sifakis, assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Liaison; Michael Flynn, national security adviser, and KT McFarland, deputy national security adviser). By comparison, Obama lost one adviser from Tier One (Greg Craig, White House counsel), and George W. Bush did not see any turnover in these high-level positions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 01, 2018 10:57 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).