Trump gives up on fight to shutter federal agency because his television told him to

by Hunter

One of the Trump administration's hard-right goals of drowning the government in a bathtub has taken a major hit, as The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump has abandoned his effort to shut down completely the Office of Personnel Management. The effort, which would have moved OPM operations to the General Services Administration, was never likely to be successful. It faced considerable opposition from lawmakers, who considered the plan to be, well, unhelpful at best.

The reason Team Trump has had to give up the fight, though, is both interesting and hilarious. Trump reportedly made the decision based on something he saw on his idiot box. "Trump soured on continuing the fight after seeing an obscure television program about government while he was in the residence," the Post reports, citing anonymous White House officials.

Whatever "obscure" program Trump was watching, it convinced him that he wasn't going to win that fight and that trying would "bring him poor reviews." Unindicted international extortion schemer and current acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and other conservative bonesaw-wielders tried to convince him to keep up the fight, says the Post, but were unsuccessful.

So there you go. Trump may have surrounded himself with the most hardline conservative reactionaries in Republicanism, but once again we see that even they are no match for his most trusted adviser of all: his television set.