by Philip Wegmann at RealClear Politics
As the administration continues to remake the federal bureaucracy to President Trump’s liking, the Office of Personnel and Management has developed an intensive new training program for those aspiring to join the Senior Executive Service, the upper echelon of government employees.
Per an OPM memo, obtained first by RealClearPolitics, the syllabus includes course work grounded in the U.S. Constitution, “Founding ideals of our government,” and Trump’s own executive orders.
The development program requires 80 hours of video-based training and culminates in two days of in-person training in Washington, D.C. It will affect government employees across the administration and disparate agencies and go live this September. The stated goal: “Ensure that SES officials uphold the Constitution and the rule of law and effectively serve the American people.”
This is the latest effort in the ongoing campaign to crush what the White House sees as an unaccountable administrative state. Trump began slashing and burning his way through the agencies as soon as he returned to office, with a particular emphasis on the Senior Executive Service. Normally little-noticed and non-controversial, they are the elite of career civil servants who serve just below presidential appointees and wield tremendous influence over federal levers of power.
To those on the right,…
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