By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — July 14, 2026

Introduction

This essay examines personnel strategy within the executive branch. While formal authority defines what a president can do, personnel decisions determine how that authority is implemented. The selection, retention, and removal of officials shape the internal behavior of the executive system.

The key question is whether personnel are chosen primarily for institutional competence or for alignment with executive authority.

Personnel as System Architecture

In any large organization, personnel function as nodes within a system. Their experience, autonomy, and decision-making authority determine how policy is developed and executed.

A competence-oriented model prioritizes:

  • subject-matter expertise
  • institutional experience
  • continuity across administrations

A loyalty-oriented model prioritizes:

  • alignment with executive direction
  • responsiveness to leadership
  • willingness to execute policy without internal resistance

These models are not mutually exclusive, but emphasis on one over the other produces different system behavior.

Patterns of Appointment

The Trump presidency demonstrated a consistent emphasis on personal loyalty as a key factor in appointments. Senior officials were frequently selected based on their alignment with executive priorities and their public support for administration policies.

This pattern extended across:

  • cabinet-level positions
  • acting appointments
  • advisory roles

Public expressions of disagreement with executive direction were often followed by personnel changes or reassignment.

Use of Acting Officials

One notable feature was the frequent use of acting officials rather than Senate-confirmed appointees. Acting appointments allow the executive to fill positions without immediate congressional approval, increasing flexibility in personnel management (Congressional Research Service, 2020).

However, acting officials typically operate with less institutional authority and greater dependence on executive support. This reinforces vertical control within the system.

From a systems perspective, acting appointments reduce external constraints while increasing internal responsiveness.

Turnover and Stability

High turnover rates were a defining characteristic. Multiple cabinet and senior-level positions experienced frequent changes over relatively short periods.

High turnover produces several effects:

  • reduced institutional memory
  • disruption of long-term policy initiatives
  • increased reliance on central direction

While turnover can remove internal opposition, it also weakens the system’s ability to sustain consistent policy implementation over time.

Internal Decision-Making

In a competence-oriented system, policy development involves internal debate and competing viewpoints. In a loyalty-oriented system, internal debate is more limited, and decision-making is more centralized.

Reports from within the administration indicated that dissenting views were less likely to be sustained within formal decision-making processes (Lewis, 2019). This shifts policy development from collaborative deliberation to directive execution.

Communication Channels

Personnel strategy also affects communication pathways. In systems where loyalty is emphasized, informal channels often become more important than formal structures.

Advisors with direct access to the president can exert influence independent of official hierarchies. This creates parallel structures of authority, where decision-making may occur outside formal processes.

This increases speed but reduces transparency and predictability.

Organizational Tradeoffs

A loyalty-centered personnel model offers:

  • rapid alignment with executive priorities
  • reduced internal resistance
  • streamlined decision-making

However, it also introduces:

  • decreased policy diversity
  • reduced institutional resilience
  • increased dependence on executive stability

These tradeoffs are structural and persist regardless of individual outcomes.

Structural Implications

Personnel strategy is one of the most direct mechanisms through which executive power is translated into operational reality.

When loyalty becomes the dominant criterion, the executive branch shifts toward a command-driven system. Agencies function less as independent policy actors and more as extensions of executive authority.

Over time, this can normalize expectations that administrative structures should reflect personal alignment with leadership rather than institutional continuity.

This series will continue to examine how these internal dynamics interact with external institutional constraints.

If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org

If you are interested in resisting authoritarian rule and understanding the systems behind it, see https://endfascism.xyz

References

Congressional Research Service. (2020). Acting officials and the Vacancies Reform Act. U.S. Congress.

Lewis, D. E. (2019). The politics of presidential appointments. Princeton University Press.

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