title:  White House Staffer Admits, “This S***’s Hard” As The Trump Administration Faces Steep Learning Curve
text: It is no secret that President Donald Trump et al had no idea what they were getting into when they took over the White House in January. Despite announcing,  In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly,  (he made this comment last November) Team Trump seems barely able to find their way to work every day. As the 100 day mark looms, it seems White House staffers are starting to get the enormity of the job.Politico interviewed numerous people within the administration to get their take on how things are going within the administration. Perhaps one aide put it best when he said this,  I kind of pooh-poohed the experience stuff when I first got here but this shit is hard. For his part, Trump does not seem to understand the scope of some of his failures, such as with health care reform or his inability to have any major legislation passed but it looks like the people around him are starting to get it. They are in a tough spot. They have to do their jobs to the best of their ability but are hampered by a president who refuses to give up any of his free time and puts more stock in opinions he sees on cable news than what he gets in his security briefings.This has forced Trump s aides to change their tactics. One high level official told Politico, You don t walk in with a traditional presentation, like a binder or a PowerPoint. He doesn t care. He doesn t consume information that way. You go in and tell him the pros and cons, and what the media coverage is going to be like. One big hurdle White House staffers face is how to control Trump. One person who is close to the administration said,  It s not like the White House doesn t have a plan to fill his time productively but at the end of the day he s in charge of his schedule. He does not like being managed. Despite the possibility that the White House staffers are more aware of the challenges they face, some upsetting facts remain. Many high level positions remain unfilled. Neither Secretary of State Rex Tillerson nor Secretary of Defense James Mattis have deputies. Most ambassadorships are empty. The problem is not just that Team Trump doesn t know how to deal with Congress, it s that they simply do not know how to govern.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images