Short version: Trump lied, saying that he either always or nearly always contacted "gold star families," and that as soon as he told that lie, the White House staff then went into damage control mode to try to turn that lie into the truth.
I have written many times, oh so many times, about what a fuckin' liar Trump is, as have plenty of others, but it really is hard to grapple, not just with the scale of Trump's lies, but with the problem he presents to the political system, including journalism, political science and civil society itself.
I have made a lot of character references when describing Donald Trump. Tony Clifton. Mel Brooks' King Louis XVI. Fergus Laing. President Camacho. Today, Tommy Flanagan-- the "pathological liar" character created by John Lovitz, from back when I used to watch Saturday Night Live.
Tommy Flanagan is President, and his staff has been tasked with either looking for ways to defend his lies, or trying retroactively to turn them into truth. And our tax dollars are paying them for this.
Let's contrast this with congressional staff. Each Member of Congress, House or Senate, has a budget for staff, and their staff has to handle a variety of tasks, from legislative (although Congress doesn't do much legislating anymore) to constituency service. That latter set is actually significant. If you have a problem with the federal government, here's some free advice from your friendly, neighborhood political scientist (come on, people-- it's a reference!). Contact your Representative. He or she will kiss your ass. Need a passport faster? Call your Representative. Problem with some federal benefit? Call your Representative. They love to do this shit. Why? It is easy for them, and they think it gets them votes.
How many votes? That's hard to say, but books have been written about the extent to which the incumbency advantage is based on the fact that incumbents can do this kind of thing, and challengers can't. See, for example, Bruce Cain, John Ferejohn and Morris Fiorina's The Personal Vote: Constituency Service and Electoral Independence. (Full disclosure: Bruce Cain was one of my grad school advisors). The thing is, it isn't just Members of Congress handling constituency service. They are devoting staff resources to this. Sometimes rather a lot of those resources, actually. And that's OK because those resources are actually serving the interests of the constituents. Or, as I would argue, those resources are actually being put to use by the Member of Congress, who is an employee, for the benefit of the constituents, who are the employers. No problems there. One can argue about the proper allocation of resources and whether more should be spent on legislative activity, oversight, etc., but constituency service is a valid use of legislative resources given the employer-employee relationship between Members of Congress and their constituents.
That's not what's going on with the White House staff. Their job, on a regular basis, is to help Trump cover up for the fact that he is Tommy Fucking Flanagan. They are serving no public interest at all, drawing salaries from taxpayer-funded pots of money, and helping the most shameless liar in American political history attempt to get away with the dumbest lies this country has ever seen. I am not attempting to emphasize the stupidity of Trump's lies here. I am attempting to emphasize the contrast between the use of resources for White House staff, right now in Trump's White House, and traditional, constituency service-based use of staff in congressional staff offices.
Are there dishonest Members of Congress whose staff have to help them cover up their shit? Sure, but nobody lies like Trump. This is off the charts. And we are paying the salaries of people whose job it is to cover up Trump's lies, or to go back and try to make them retroactively true.
I wonder where all those supposed deficit-hawks stand on this use of taxpayer dollars...
