PHOTO: Donald Trump with advisors, incuding controversial “chief strategist” Steve Bannon


It’s chaos in the Trump transition team, with the President-elect and his advisors dismissing some senior figures and bringing in controversial replacements, including a prominent conspiracy theorist and Islamophobe named Frank Gaffney.

Amid the in-fighting and personal feuds, the change of Government is stalled. Because the Trump team — now led by Vice President Mike Pence but driven by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — has not signed the required documents, there can be no discussions with President Obama’s staff and agencies such as the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the Treasury.

Speaking with Monocle 24’s The Briefing on Wednesday, David Dunn of the University of Birmingham explains how the turmoil has occurred.

Listen from 13:19:

It partly follows the pattern that Trump has followed throughout this campaign, of sacking people in large numbers at regular intervals….It’s partly because Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is getting revenge on [former head of transition] Chris Christie….It’s partly a recogntion that Trump has no experience of Government or any elected office, and because of that he has no networks.

On top of that, he went out of his way to insult people, so many in the Republican Party have distanced themselves from the Trump Administration.

As a consequence, Trump is surrounding himself with family members and with third- and fourth-rank outsiders.