Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump's favorite president used to be Andrew Jackson because Old Hickory pioneered the spoils system, where he used government jobs and other resources to reward his friends and punish his enemies. More recently, Trump switched allegiances to William McKinley, famous for imposing tariffs. Still, Trump's fondness for the spoils system remains. Only he has upped the ante. Instead of giving out jobs to supporters, he is going to give away entire government departments to red states. Today is the deadline for states to submit bids for agencies they would like. In particular, Florida, Ohio, and Texas have been aggressively lobbying to get key agencies and all the jobs they will bring to the state.
Some of the fiercest lobbying has been for NASA which, like the other agencies, is in D.C. Ohio wants it to move to Cleveland, near the Glenn Research Center. However, both Florida senators are lobbying hard to move it to the "Space Coast" in Brevard County, FL. But not so fast. Texas already has the Johnson Space Center, and would love to have the rest of NASA as well. If Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) can pull this off, it will greatly help him in the upcoming primary with Ken Paxton. Then Cornyn could argue that his seniority and clout in the Senate have great value for Texas. But Trump might well decide to endorse the very-Trumpy Paxton rather than the not-so-Trumpy Cornyn, so that could kill Texas' bid. On the other hand, Trump detests Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), so there goes Florida. And Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) isn't very Trumpy either. Maybe Alabama, near the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, then? Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) drank all the Kool-Aid and then some, but Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) is only play-acting Trumpism. Maybe Trump will pick some place not on anyone's radar, like North Carolina, to help Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) next year, or a real longshot: the moon. Who knows?
HUD Secretary Scott Turner hates his building and would like to move. He is considering Houston, Kansas City, and Akron. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins wants to break up her department altogether and spread the pieces around the country, like ashes after a cremation.
One thing to consider, for better or worse, is that if a department moves far away from the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, many workers may quit rather than move. When the Bureau of Land Management relocated to Grand Junction, CO, 87% of the employees quit rather than relocate. Of course, for Trump, having almost everyone leave might be a plus, since it de facto shuts down the department without his having to ask Congress to do so. It also destroys all institutional knowledge of how the department works. In addition, moving departments out of the D.C. area hurts the blue states of Maryland and Virginia as well as the federal government, so from Trump's point of view, that alone may be worth the price of admission.
If the government is spread over a dozen states far apart, the departments are going to operate independently and will likely duplicate many services that were once shared. That will lead to a lot of waste, but who cares about waste in government? No one in the Trump administration, apparently. (V)