Making sense of the never-ending turnover in the administration.
Clearly, James Mattis’ departure is gravely concerning — he was the last grown-up, and while not much is known about acting secretary designee Patrick Shanahan, his experience in military technology isn’t likely to calm jitters in world capitals about whether Mr. Mattis’ successor can check the president’s impetuous behavior.
Other departures are less obviously chilling. In a normal administration, a president hiring his third chief of staff in under two years would launch a flotilla of news stories speculating about that president’s stability and willingness to submit to a certain degree of order. But we have a president who gleefully flaunts his instability and thirst for disorder every day, so these stories are very old news.
