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CNN  — 

John Bolton is a “wacko” and a “sick puppy.”

Jim Mattis was the “the world’s most overrated general” whose “primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations.”

Jeff Sessions was “not mentally qualified.”

John Kelly was “way over his head.”

Rex Tillerson was “dumb as a rock.”

Those are President Donald Trump’s assessments of his former national security adviser, former defense secretary, former Attorney General, former chief of staff and former Secretary of State, respectively.

Surely, the person tasked with making this series of disastrous hires – at the highest levels of Trump’s administration – has also been fired? Well, no. Because that person is Donald Trump.

“If there was one criticism that I would level against the President is he didn’t hire very well,” said Trump’s former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on CNN Friday morning, in one of the great understatements of 2020 so far. “He did not have experience at running government and didn’t know how to put together a team that could work well with him.”

The amount of turnover in just Trump’s first three years in office is stunning.

Just six of Trump’s original Cabinet members remain in their jobs today: Sonny Perdue (Agriculture), Betsy Devos (Education), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury) Elaine Chao (Transportation), Ben Carson (Housing) and Wilbur Ross (Commerce).

According to Brookings’ Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, 88% of the “most influential positions within the executive office of the president” have turned over as of June 8. That’s the highest rate of departure in a first term since at least Ronald Reagan.

And it’s not just that Trump’s administration is turning over at historically high rates. Or even that Trump is badmouthing some of his most high-profile hires. (Here’s a longer list of former senior staff Trump has attacked.) It’s that he made his business acumen – and, specifically, his hiring skills – as a central selling point during the 2016 campaign!

In August 2015, after parting ways with on-again, off-again political adviser Roger Stone, Trump told The Washington Post this: “I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals.”

“I am self funding and will hire the best people, not the biggest donors!,” Trump pledged in April 2016.

Trump was, to many voters, the guy from “The Apprentice” – a tough and savvy boss who knew who had “it” and who didn’t. His success in business was regarded as proof of that judgment. He wasn’t like all of these bloated bureaucrats in Washington! He’d bring in the only the best people!

Trump’s first term in office has proven the lie in that perception.

“The Apprentice” was just a TV show. And a heavily edited one at that. Trump’s business background was less defined by savvy hires than reliance on a handful of yes men and women as well as his blood relatives.

The truth is that Trump had absolutely no idea what he was doing in hiring for the top spots in his administration. And he handicapped himself even further when he dumped Chris Christie as the head of his presidential transition team and replaced the former New Jersey governor with incoming Vice President Mike Pence.

As Trump’s presidency has worn on, he has tended to revert back to what he knows when it comes to hiring: Elevating people – Mike Pompeo being the shining example – who are relentless advocates for him, never raising a question or blinking an eye at what Trump says and does.

Whether you think that is a good thing likely depends on how you feel about Trump. But what’s beyond debate is that his much-touted hiring skills are, well, not very skillful. At all.