Paging the personnel department

If the name Taylor Weyeneth rings a tiny bell in your head, then you might be related to him. Otherwise, the 24-year-old was until a week ago an unknown if powerful member of the Trump administration: deputy chief of staff in the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Weyeneth’s qualifications for the job, which falls under the executive branch and spends hundreds of millions to fight illegal drugs and manage the opioid crisis, are essentially nil. As reported in The Washington Post, he did lose a relative to a heroin overdose and was very moved, making him uniquely qualified for no job whatsoever. His professional experience consisted of working on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and, before that, working for a family firm that processed health products such as chia seeds, which is a spiffy resume item if you’re aiming to make smoothies at Whole Foods.

Weyeneth’s alarming lack of qualifications raises a number of questions, principally: What in the world were they thinking? Didn’t the president not long ago declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency? Who put Weyeneth there and why?

Since the ONDCP is part of the executive branch, Weyeneth’s placement would have come through the Office of Presidential Personnel, run by John DeStefano, a former staffer and policy adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner. DeStefano is in charge of screening job applicants and interviewing potential ambassadors and Cabinet secretaries. He is the arbiter of loyalty among possible hires, and is involved in the firing of those found to be not quite loyal enough.

Given the hundreds of unfilled jobs throughout the administration, including toplevel positions, loyalists must be few and far between. DeStefano doesn’t mind the criticism that he’s taking too long to fill positions, however. In a Post interview last April, he said he was more concerned about getting it right than fast. He often asks candidates: “’What’s your vision? ... I’m the person who’s vouching for them to the president of the United States.”

One can only imagine what Weyeneth offered up. It must have been very, very good.

None of this is Weyeneth’s fault, of course. He merely stepped in where he was allowed, as any ambitious, recent college grad would. But his story suggests more-serious systemic problems. Bottom line: More-experienced, qualified candidates have simply declined to join the Trump club. It is broadly understood that one either doesn’t last long or that, once associated with this administration, one’s future becomes rather dim.

Too, word is out that Trump’s henchmen take no prisoners.

So it was with the ONDCP’s acting chief of staff and general counsel, Lawrence “Chip” Muir, who was suddenly shown the door last month. One hears dozens of stories of similarly shabby treatment. The only survivors in this reality show are those who apparently do as they’re told or who flatter the emperor as required.

Thus, people such as Weyeneth get important jobs for which they’re unqualified and accrue power wildly disproportionate to their talents or experience. After a week of reported tensions between Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly, insiders are speculating about whether the retired general will be the next to join the exit parade.

The exit doors seem especially busy with women these days.

“They’re keeping their heads down and getting the hell out of there,” a recent evacuee told me. Though a Republican loyalist who has worked in three administrations, she bolted after three months on a job when she realized that Trump world was a cartoon version of “Lord of the Flies.” “No one’s in charge,” she said. The pace of voluntary departures is likely to pick up as Democrats appear closer to taking back the House and Senate in November. What profit would there be in sticking around? A Democratic Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer could theoretically begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. The Senate Banking Committee, if led by now-ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown (assuming Ohio re-elects him) and featuring Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), would no doubt delight in closely examining Trump’s multiple bankruptcies.

The effect of such events would be to humiliate Trump, who hates to lose, and essentially neuter his power to move legislation. Rather than draining the swamp, he would have instigated an exodus of good people, reinforced the status quo, and lent a helping hand to an increasingly left-leaning Democratic Party.

In the interim, poor Weyeneth, who is only 24 after all, is just a kid on a fast ride, who, through no fault of his own has become both emblem and embodiment of the Trump administration’s recklessness and lack of seriousness. He deserves a job commensurate with his accomplishments — and American people deserve grown-ups in the White House.

Kathleen Parker is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Her email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.

The rude, petulant man-child in the Oval Office is reeling ever more wildly out of control, and those who cynically or slavishly pretend otherwise are doing a grave disservice to the nation — and to themselves.

How do you like him now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? President Trump convened a made-for-television summit at the White House and said he’d sign any immigration bill Congress passes. “I’ll take the heat,” he boasted. So a bipartisan group of senators came up with a deal — and he rejected it out of hand, launching into an unhinged rant about “shithole countries.”

What about you, House Speaker Paul Ryan? You came up with a clever way to get Democrats to agree to a stopgap funding bill, dangling the possibility of a long-term renewal of the vital Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But the president tweeted that “CHIP should be part of a long term solution” and not a short-term measure to keep the government from shutting down.

Is this what you signed up for, chief of staff John Kelly? In a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, you said that some of Trump’s campaign positions on immigration were “uninformed” and that there will never be a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. You reportedly added that whatever partial barrier gets built, Mexico won’t pay for it. But the president slapped you down with another series of tweets, claiming that his promised wall “has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it” — and that Mexico will, too, pay for the wall, “directly or indirectly.”

How was your week, White House physician Ronny Jackson? You did what is expected of everyone who stands at the podium in the briefing room: lavish the president with flowery, over-thetop, Dear Leader praise. He is in “excellent health,” you announced. But the test results you released, according to many other doctors, indicate that Trump suffers from moderate heart disease and is on the borderline between overweight and obese. In your view, the next step down from “excellent” must be “deceased.”

Having fun, Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski? As bigwigs in the Trump campaign, you helped a manifestly unfit blowhard get elected president. This week, you did the White House a favor by stonewalling the House Intelligence Committee in a way that angered even the Republicans on the panel, which is hard to do. But you remain in the crosshairs of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and the best-case scenario is that you emerge unindicted but saddled with mountainous legal bills.

No one should feel sorry for those who choose to aid and abet this travesty of an administration. They made their choices. They elected to trust a man they know to be wholly untrustworthy, and to lie shamelessly to massage his swollen ego. At this point, I wouldn’t believe Sarah Huckabee Sanders if she told me that water is wet and the sky is blue.

But the larger impact is something we all must worry about: One year into the Trump presidency, we effectively do not have a presidency at all.

As McConnell noted in frustration Wednesday, he can’t orchestrate passage of an immigration bill unless he knows what Trump is willing to sign. Likewise, Ryan can’t pass spending legislation unless he knows what Trump will and will not accept. But the president has no fixed positions. His word is completely unreliable. How are congressional leaders supposed to do their jobs?

Regarding foreign policy, how can other nations take seriously anything Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says when he is subject to being countermanded on Twitter at any moment? What is the point of Jared Kushner’s diplomacy, if you can call it that, in the Middle East? Does “America First” really mean anything, or is it just Trumpian hot air?

And why, at this point, do reporters even bother to attend Sanders’ briefings, unless perhaps for the entertainment value? Past press secretaries all delivered pronouncements that were loaded with spin, but Sanders concocts laughable fantasies out of thin air — usually to “justify” crazy things Trump has said or tweeted.

The nation has never before faced a situation like this: It is unwise to take literally or seriously anything the president and his official spokespersons say. An administration with no credibility cannot possibly lead.

Trump is incapable of growing into the job; if anything, he is becoming more erratic. I fear the day when a crisis arises and we must face it with a bratty preteen at the helm.

Eugene Robinson is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. His email address is eugenerobinson@ washpost.com.