The Company You Keep
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/04/donald-trumps-spring-cleaning
Benjamin Wallace-Wells describes the rapid turnover in the Trump Administration over the last month or so in The New Yorker of May 4.
Here’s the list of those who are gone:
Kristi Noem-Homeland Security
Pam Bondi-Attorney General
Lori Chavez-DeRemer-Labor
Randy George-US Army
John Phelan-US Navy
Posited to be gone soon:
Kash Patel-FBI
Tulsi Gabbard-National Intelligence
Howard Lutnick-Commerce
The firings and potential departures stem from the poor decisions of those dismissed as well as their ineffectiveness in furthering the MAGA agenda. Several were not great on TV either. Their boss favors people who do well on television. In addition, there were significant disagreements with Trump’s policies and just bad blood in the Department of War that led to the firings there.
The question for the day is what do all these firing and potential firings mean?
It is no secret that President Trump’s approval ratings are plummeting. He started an unpopular war and is having difficulty bringing it a successful conclusion. He has yet to define what success looks like. He never defined why he started it anyway, so how can we know what he was trying to do? It would be ironic indeed if the war ended with an agreement little different from the agreement President Obama negotiated with Iran and with the Strait of Hormuz continuing to be an Iranian weapon of mischief.
We all know that one sure consequence of Trump’s war is the high price of gasoline at the pump and the high price of everything brought anywhere by a vehicle burning fossil fuel—trucks, airplanes, ships–due to the lockdown in the Strait of Hormuz.
It is also clear that while Trump had success closing off the southern border to additional immigration, his deportation promise is way behind what was expected. Trump campaigned on deporting 15-20 million people. His “former border patrol official Gregory Bovino” had “plans to deport a hundred million”…nearly a third of the nation’s population.” Instead what people remember about this deportation effort is the two Americans killed by ICE in Minneapolis.
There also were the heavily reported scandals in advertising budgets, excessive use of alcohol, and infidelity, but there’s much more to this rapid turnover. There must be a sense on the part of Mr. Trump that he has to change something. Why not fire people, something he’s made his mark doing? These people are the company he kept in his second term. No longer is he weighed down by those trying to talk him out of things as he was in his first term when he actually surrounded himself with competent adults (nonetheless firing many of them). Now he has surrounded himself with MAGA hardliners and sycophants. Many of them are ill-equipped for their jobs, inexperienced, and not really qualified. It should come as no surprise that those fired were deemed ineffective in advancing the MAGA agenda by the president.
I learned about being judged by the company I kept early during my stint as a vice president. Initially, I inherited a group of individuals who were already administering the clinical research infrastructure—the IRB, the Clinical Research Committee, and MD Anderson’s regulatory dealings with the FDA. It was not until well into my second year on the job that I realized my effectiveness was being compromised by the people I inherited. Their lackluster performance was the reason I got my job in the first place. Had the clinical research infrastructure been serving the needs of the faculty as well as securing compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations as it applies to human subjects research, there wouldn’t have been a need to overhaul the office by the Vice President for Patient Care, David Hohn and the Vice President of Research, Fred Becker.
It was when I made my best hire ever, Dr. Carleen Brunelli, and she took control of the infrastructure, that we started to improve. Most of those remaining were fired or left. Then she began the process of staffing the office and teaching me how to be a better manager and leader. One department within the office at a time, she found an exemplary individual (almost all women over the seven years we were at this together) to manage a crucial area of research infrastructure, from grants, to animals, to clinical research compliance. Interestingly, all of these individuals have left MD Anderson, many for way better jobs including Dr. Brunelli herself.
Did we make mistakes in hiring? We did and moved to correct them as fast as HR would let us. But whatever effectiveness we brought to the management of the research infrastructure I attribute to Carleen and the company I kept, the company she hired.
I have lately been through a few instances of trying to help faculty being crushed by the MD Anderson system. What has been so striking to me in my failure to accomplish anything is the lack of competent leaders around President Pisters when it comes to matters involving the faculty. If they had been good at their jobs, the individuals being bullied would have been helped instead of being harassed.
What I encountered in trying to assist young faculty was lawyers and administrators who believe their main job is not service to the faculty but protecting the president and/or the institution from bad press or financial exposure. To fulfill those goals, they allow academic leadership in the form of Division Heads and department chairs to ride roughshod over junior faculty.
President Trump, myself, and Dr. Pisters were all going to be judged as to their effectiveness in serving their constituents by the company they keep.
Currently, President Trump is keeping company with those who will do what he says rather than wisely advise him.
I was taught by my Associate Vice President the importance of finding the best possible people as the company I kept if I was to be seen as able and serving the faculty.
President Pisters seems to surround himself, much like President Trump, with people who will massage his ego, but get little done. They are not qualified to fulfill their job description on paper, but great at acquiescing to what Pisters wants.
You will be judged by the company you keep, a phrase often attributed to Aesop. Ignoring this precept can block your path to success.
Both President Trump and President Pisters would be wise to make some changes in those around them. Will either be trading up?
