Wake Up To Politics - January 13, 2017
Friday, January 13, 2017
7 Days until Inauguration Day - ONE WEEK!
662 Days until Election Day 2018
Good morning! Reporting from WUTP world H!Q (in my bedroom), I'm Gabe Fleisher: this is your wake up call.
Email: gabe@wakeuptopolitics.com
Website: wakeuptopolitics.com
Twitter: @WakeUp2Politics
Facebook: Wake Up To Politics
No school today due to the St. Louis ice storm - so I'm just now waking up (to politics). Instead of a full newsletter, I'm sending a project I've been working on for a few days, so you can start your long weekend off looking (and sharing) some interesting political data. No newsletter on Monday in honor of MLK Day, and then I'll be back on Tuesday for Inauguration Week.
WUTP SPECIAL: Mapping the Trump Administration
- It is often said that "personnel is policy": the staffs installed by politicians are extremely telling as to how those politicians will act in office. Donald J. Trump is entering the White House without many longtime political aides and associates, forcing him to draw from Wall Street, his business, and establishment Washington hands (like the ones he derided in the campaign) to stock his Administration.
- Wake Up To Politics conducted an analysis of the resumés of all 74 appointees announced by the President-elect so far (staff, Cabinet, etc.) in an attempt to find how Trump's picks are connected to each other as well as outside groups and individuals. President-elect Trump has set up a number of competing power bases in his White House, with a number of powerful figures (chief of staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, advisor Jared Kushner, counselor Kellaynne Conway, and vice president Mike Pence) bringing with them their own connections.
- Who holds the most influence? Each circle in the map represents a person or group, following a color code. Dark red circles are Trump Administration appointees; the larger a circle, the more connections that person/group has to Trump Administration appointees. Therefore, the larger circles are occupying more influence over who Trump is picking and are set to become more powerful in Trump's Washington, based on the number of their former aides joining the ranks of his White House.
- You can access the interactive map here: mouse over a circle to see who it is connected to. Click on a circle to see who the circle is. Click on a connection to see how the two circles are connected. A picture of the map is below, and underneath that is a roundup of who is most connected to the Administration.
- Who has the most connections to the incoming Trump White House?
- 1. Trump campaign 37
- 2. George W. Bush 19
- 3. U.S. Armed Forces 12
- 4. Mike Pence 10
- 5. Republican National Committee 8
- 6. Trump Organization/Foundation 7
- 7. Ted Cruz 5
- 7. Fox News 5
- 7. Ronald Reagan 5
- 7. Goldman Sachs 5
- 7. Heritage Foundation 5
- What do you think of the map? What would you change about how it looks or is presented? Have any connections to add? Let me know, I'll be updating it as we get closer to Inauguration Day!
For more on Wake Up To Politics, listen to Gabe on NPR's "Talk of the Nation", St. Louis Public Radio, the Political Junkie podcast, and on StoryCorps; watch Gabe on MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki"; and read about Gabe in Politico, the Washington Post, Independent Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Salon, the Globe, and the St. Louis Jewish Light.
