Con Air
by Tom Sullivan
"It's almost acting like a crime family," the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart told Chris Matthews last night. MSNBC's Hardball panel was discussing President Trump punting to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly whether to grant a waiver to Trump son in-law Jared Kushner so he may continue to handle highly classified documents. Kushner is unable to pass a background check and earn a permanent security clearance; he holds a temporary one. Like his wife Ivanka, Kushner continues to serve in the White House not because of qualifications, but because he is family with personal loyalties to the president. The panel questioned whether he and others from the Trump inner circle are in government to serve the country or just themselves.
In the Trump tradition of naming inexperienced friends and family to senior positions in government, press reports surfaced late Sunday that Trump is considering naming his longtime personal pilot, John Dunkin, to head the Federal Aviation Administration. The position has been vacant since President Obama's FAA chief, Michael Huerta, stepped down:
John Dunkin flew Trump around during his campaign in 2016, piloting a Boeing 757 dubbed "Trump Force One." The president clearly thinks highly of Dunkin, telling airline executives he was a "real expert" at a White House meeting a year ago.Trump referred to an ongoing air traffic control modernization program known as NextGen.
"My pilot, he's a smart guy and knows what's going on," Trump said in February 2017. "He said the government is using the wrong equipment and instituting a massive, multibillion-dollar project, but they're using the wrong type of equipment."