Now there’s news from Politico that the Trump team decided to forego ethics training for senior White House staff, Cabinet nominees and other political appointees. Apparently, the training was a casualty of when Vice President Mike Pence took over the transition from Chris Christie. Perhaps Pence did not believe the training was worth its $1 million price.
But if any administration needed some ethics training, it’s clearly one where the president, his chief of staff (Rence Priebus), and his chief strategist (Steven Bannon), have no government experience. And although White House Counsel Donald McGahn once was a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, he has no White House experience. While their ethics specialist, Deputy White House Counsel Stefan Passantino, has provided ethics training to House members, he also has no government or White House experience. Since the White House skipped the training, here are a few pointers.