I have already noted that NCIS is popular among Trump supporters. Trump is strong on authority, his in particular, and NCIS, after all, centers around the military, the Navy and the Marines, which is strong on authority as well. Moreover he has turned to generals in staffing up, Mattis as Defense Secretary, McMaster as National Security Adviser, and now Kelly as his chief-of-staff (he’d previously headed Homeland Security). This makes sense, Trump & the generals, NCIS & Trump’s supporters, and yet...
The New York Times has reported that some of Trump’s staff “gently suggested he refrain from injecting politics into day-to-day issues” to which 45 responded by unloading on his new chief of staff:
Mr. Kelly, the former Marine general brought in five weeks ago as the successor to Reince Priebus, reacted calmly, but he later told other White House staff members that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country. In the future, he said, he would not abide such treatment, according to three people familiar with the exchange.
Makes sense, all around. Trump can’t abide having anyone try to reign him in and a general can’t abide being treated like dirt – I assume that’s what Trump did in one way or another.
It’s a tricky situation:
“It is inevitable that a guy who will not be contained and does not want to be handled or managed was going to rebel against the latest manager who wanted to control him,” said Roger Stone, the longtime Trump adviser, who believes Mr. Kelly represents a kind of management coup by “the triumvirate” of two powerful retired generals — Mr. Kelly and Jim Mattis, the defense secretary — and one general who is still in the Army, the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster.
Back to NCIS. The central character is Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon. Gibbs is a former Marine sniper and gunnery sergeant. He runs a tight ship, authority and discipline – like the generals, but is also a bit of a cowboy – like Trump. I can’t imagine Gibbs putting up with a Trump-like person under his command, nor, for that matter, can I imagine him serving under one or being anyone’s chief of staff. He’s an interesting character, like Trump in some ways, utterly unlike him in other ways.
And then we have the matter of boundaries, which, as I’ve indicated in a previous post, is at issue in NCIS. Gibbs maintains the boundaries that his subordinates find troublesome, but will bend the rules when necessary. Trump has made America’s boundaries a major issue, acting to curtail immigration and promising to build a wall along the Mexican border. This clearly appeals to his base, and I suspect to others as well. But otherwise Trump disrespects boundaries, his attitudes toward women is the most obvious example (something Gibbs would have no truck with), along with his conduct in office, in particular, his refusal to respect the boundary separating the Justice Department and the FBI from the executive (that is, the Presidency).
What would Gibbs think of 45?
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