Trump Removes Inspector General Who Was Set to Oversee Stimulus Spending

The president’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic can only be described as a shitshow. From responding way too late to touting unproven treatments, Trump has been a hindrance to the recovery effort. When he’s not just poorly managing the crisis, he’s trying to take advantage of it.

The Washington Post reports that Trump has removed Glenn Fine from his role as acting Pentagon inspector general. Fine was set to oversee management of the $2 trillion stimulus package set to be distributed in the coming months. Trump replaced Fine with Sean W. O’Donnell, the current inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency and has nominated Jason Abend, the senior policy adviser at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to take over the role on a permanent basis.

From The Washington Post:

The $2 trillion coronavirus emergency spending law created several layers of oversight, including a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which is supposed to be overseen by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. Late last month, a number of inspectors general selected Fine to serve as panel chairman.

Critics of the move point out that this is yet another example of Trump undercutting any form of independent oversight. Just last Friday, he fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, a move he straight-up admitted had to do with Atkinson’s role in informing lawmakers about the whistleblower’s complaint about the president’s phone call with the Ukrainian president. The Post reports Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said: “President Trump has been engaged in an assault against independent Inspectors General since last Friday in order to undermine oversight of his chaotic and deficient response to the coronavirus crisis.”

A crisis typically brings out the best in people as we try to work together to get through this. Not this president, however. This crisis has seen him indulge his worst tendencies. Granted, all his tendencies are generally bad but you would think that in a situation where thousands are dying by the day he could at least rein back on being an ethically compromised dick.