Of Course They're Incompetent

Here's a scenario for you:

You are someone who specializes in [pretty much anything] and there is a position in the White House staff to provide advice and help implement policy regarding the thing you specialize in.  You are asked to take said position.  It is the Trump White House.

Normaly the answer to something like this is not simple, but there's a good chance it would be "Yes!" That last line though is a kicker.  The problem is that Trump is a know-nothing man child who may listen to you while you are in the room but you've got at best a 50/50 chance that your informed suggestion will get implemented, a chance that goes down dramatically if anyone else talks to him between the time you did and the time that said suggestion gets implemented.  The chance approaches zero if any of a small handful of people are opposed.  In the end, whether you get fired, resign or just toil on fruitlessly, you will be forever tarnished as "that person who worked for the Trump administration."

So the answer becomes easy: NO!   The fact is that, almost by definition, anyone who accepts a position in this White House or from this president is inherently unqualified and incompetent.  His supreme court pick is already tarnished by virtue of the fact that it should have been filled a year earlier, but it was Trump that put forth the nomination.  Justice lobster is sure to have asterisks by his name throughout history.

This all brings me back to the beginning of an article Digby quotes extensively from here (article is NYT which I will try my best to never link directly again):

Mr. Trump’s appetite for chaos, coupled with his disregard for the self-protective conventions of the presidency, have left his staff confused and squabbling. And his own mood, according to two advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has become sour and dark, turning against most of his aides — even his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — and describing them in a fury as “incompetent,” according to one of those advisers.

Emphasis mine.  No competent aids would accept a position, and in the unlikely event one did (because she really thought she could make a difference) Donald would end up firing her because a competent person would end up disagreeing with president man-child on pretty much everything.