Donald Trump did not believe that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was tough enough. Really? She implemented tearing infants out of the arms of their mothers and placing little children in wire cages. POTUS publicly humiliated her for over a year, even though she enforced nearly all of Trump’s cruelest policies. Who will replace Nielsen, and how cruel would he be? That was just the beginning of the White House ripping the heads off of his departments.
When the news came that Trump pulled the U.S. Secret Service director Randolph “Tex” Alles, people wondered what was going on. POTUS had just fired Secretary Nielsen. Was he also firing Alles, a government employee for 40 years? Indeed, he was. Trump told his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to fires Alles.
The president has been cleaning house, imposing the temporary position name “acting” onto more than a handful of his replacements, thus, avoiding the process of getting the Congress to approve them.
The man who occasionally sits in the Oval Office has been firing the Congress-approved heads of departments. That has left him with few longterm people. One of the remaining staff who has managed to hang on is top adviser, Stephen Miller. Trump has put him in charge of the White House’s border policies.
According to CNN, Miller has been “executing his plan” of slicing off the entire leadership in the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump tweeted Sunday that Kevin McAleenan, the current commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will serve as acting Homeland Security secretary:
‘Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service…I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!’
Apparently, firing Alles apparently had nothing to do with the Chinese national, a wealthy woman, who illegally entered Mar-a-Lago. It has been no secret that the Secret Service has had a lot of trouble securing Trump’s country club/southern White House. Yujing Zhang said that she wanted to go swimming, which would have been difficult with the four phones, a thumb drive with malware, and a computer — but no swimming suit she carried. The Chinese woman made it past a minimum of five Secret Service agents.
Trump did not appear to mind, though, and he said:
‘I could not be happier with Secret Service. Secret Service has done a fantastic job from day one. Very happy with them.’
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke to the press:
‘(Alles) will be leaving shortly, (and Trump) has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May.’
NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams covers the U.S. Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and Homeland Security Departments. He reported that the president decided between 10 and 14 days earlier to fire Alles. That was prior to the Mar-a-Lago problem:
‘(Alles’ firing was “not based on any single precipitating event.’
Now that Alles is gone, the DHS is missing Senate-confirmed officials for these positions:
‘Secret Service director, agency secretary, deputy secretary, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and inspector general.’
