President-elect Donald Trump’s iconoclastic approach to nominations isn’t just the people he’s picking — it’s the people he’s looking to fire.
In at least two instances so far, Mr. Trump named nominees for positions that aren’t supposed to become empty for several years, but Mr. Trump said he’ll fill them anyway.
At the IRS, Commissioner Danny Werfel has three more years to go on his five-year tenure, but Mr. Trump plans to install a former congressman in the job.
And at the FBI, Mr. Trump said he would deploy a new director even though Christopher Wray — a Trump pick from 2017 — had more than two years left on his 10-year term. Mr. Wray has bowed to the pressure and said he will resign, removing the need for Mr. Trump to actually fire him.
They are known as fixed-term appointments, and the theory behind having them was to put them beyond the reach of the daily political fray.
But Mr. Trump is following a different philosophy, what’s come to be called the “unitary executive” theory of government, which has gained currency among conservatives. It holds that the president is in charge of all executive functions and must be able to put his people in place to have accountability to voters.
That means ousting fixed-term officeholders when needed.
“Historically, there was more of a political constraint on removing someone before their term was over unless there was some bad behavior,” said Davis Lewis, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University who studies presidential nominations. “The political handbrake is eroding, and it may be no longer functioning.”
Staffing a new administration is always fraught with questions and challenges.
The heads of major departments go as a matter of course, unless the new president explicitly asks them to stay. President Obama kept on President Bush’s defense secretary, for example. And it is traditional for U.S. attorneys to offer their resignations so the new president can install his preferred people as the top prosecutors in the 93 offices across the country.
Then there are the fixed-term offices. They include single-head agencies such as the IRS, FBI, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Social Security. They include panels such as the Federal Election Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission or the National Labor Relations Board.
Experts said Mr. Trump has been eyeing fights over some of those panels — particularly the NLRB, where Democratic appointees have a 3-2 advantage and where terms last five years. Some conservatives were urging the president to fire members and create some new openings.
The urgency for that plan dissipated this month after Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer failed in his bid to renew the term of the chair, a Democratic appointee, in a last-ditch confirmation vote. Now that spot can be filled by Mr. Trump, which would give GOP appointees a 3-2 advantage.
Mr. Lewis said the theory behind fixed-term appointments was to insulate them from the vagaries of politics. Someone’s Social Security checks or IRS audit shouldn’t vary depending on which party controlled the White House, he said.
“The downside of that is when you make agencies independent, they may go rogue in ways that are inconsistent with what elected officials or voters want,” Mr. Lewis said. “The president-elect feels like the FBI has gone rogue and feels like it needs to be brought to heel.”
Mr. Trump isn’t blazing new ground.
In 2017, he ousted FBI Director James Comey, an Obama appointee whose handling of investigations into Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton drew condemnation and repeated spankings by an inspector general.
Four years later, President Biden got in on the act, firing Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, whom Mr. Trump appointed in his first term.
Mr. Biden’s replacement at Social Security, Martin O’Malley, has already resigned. That clears the way for Mr. Trump to install his pick, banking executive Frank Bisignano.
Mr. Trump said he would not attempt to push the issue with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, another fixed-term officeholder.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he signaled an understanding of the thorny issues involved in trying to ask Mr. Powell to go.
“I think if I told him to, he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn’t. But if I told him to, he would,” Mr. Trump said.
It’s not just the symbolism of ousting fixed-term officeholders. Mr. Trump’s picks to fill the offices are also drawing scrutiny.
At the IRS, Mr. Trump has said he hopes to install former Rep. Bill Long to replace Mr. Werfel.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS, said Mr. Werfel has overseen major improvements to customer service and increased audits and deserves to keep the job for his full 5-year term.
“If Trump fires Mr. Werfel, it won’t be to improve on his work; it’ll be to install somebody Trump can control as he meddles with the IRS,” the Oregon senator said. “It’s public knowledge that Trump sought to sic the IRS on people he saw as political enemies during his first term. There is no reason to believe he’ll behave any differently in his second.”
The incoming president has tapped Kash Patel, who has had experience as a congressional staffer, at the Justice Department and on the White House National Security Council, to take over at the FBI. Democrats have complained — and Republicans hope — that he would be a wrecking ball at the FBI.
Mr. Wray was named by Mr. Trump in 2017 after he fired Mr. Comey. Republicans hoped Mr. Wray would restore the bureau’s reputation but have been deeply disappointed.
Mr. Wray announced this month he will step down at the end of Mr. Biden’s tenure, removing the need for Mr. Trump to fire him.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.