Obama walked into a government full of people who were in lockstep with his agenda. The few people, say who believed that Black Panthers practicing voter intimidation should be jailed instead of given a wet sloppy kiss, were quickly disposed of.
Trump however is heading a government filled with people who oppose his agenda. In ways subtle and gross. State is a mess. So is the Pentagon. And so the few good guys in the government have to wrestle with the sheer structure. And then come to Trump to intervene.
It's a messy situation.
President Donald Trump told aides to toughen a State Department letter last week that declared Iran in compliance with a landmark nuclear deal, senior U.S. officials involved in a policy review said.
Top White House officials said the initial letter the State Department submitted was too soft because it ignored Tehran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East and support for regional terrorist groups, these officials said.
Mr. Trump personally weighed in on the redrafting of the letter, which was sent to Congress on April 18, the officials said. The final version highlighted Iran’s threatening regional behavior and called into question the U.S.’s long-term support for the multinational accord.
Mr. Trump also told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to follow up the next day with a strident public message that the new administration was planning a shift on policy toward Iran, putting the nuclear deal in play, these officials said.
It was the right thing to do. But it shouldn't have had to play out at that level.
But until recently Iran policy was headed by Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a former Iranian lobbyist. Sahar has supposedly been reassigned, but she's still there, and the odds are excellent that she has plenty of likeminded fellow travelers along for the ride. Under those conditions, you have to wrestle over Iran policy with embedded people who are going to fight you every step of the way. Just so we can confront Iran.