'Friday night massacres': Trump's purge of the US oversight community is another reminder that he believes officials owe him personal loyalty above all else

• On Friday, President Donald Trump continued his purge of the US's oversight community by ousting the State Department inspector general, Steve Linick.
• Linick is the fourth inspector general that Trump has forced out. He also ousted the intelligence community inspector general and the acting watchdogs of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Pentagon.
• Veterans of the oversight community say Trump's firing spree is another indication that he believes government officials owe him personal loyalty above all else.
• Michael Bromwich, the former Justice Department inspector general, described Trump's actions as "Friday night massacres."
• "The president is really saying to the Congress, 'You can't put somebody in the executive branch who I can't completely control and will tell you anything that I don't want you to know about,'" said the former inspector general of the National Security Agency.

On Friday, President Donald Trump carried out the latest move in his ongoing purge of the US's oversight community by ousting State Department inspector general (IG) Steve Linick.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing Linick's dismissal, Trump stressed that he has "the power of appointment" when it comes to IGs and said he "no longer" had full confidence in Linick.

At the time of his firing, Linick was reportedly investigating whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning.

And on Monday, The Washington Post reported that Linick was also investigating Pompeo's decision to expedite an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia last May. The Trump administration circumvented congressional authority on the matter at the time by citing heightened tensions with Iran.

House Democrats are looking into whether the investigations played a role in Linick's ouster, but have not concluded if one inquiry played a bigger factor than the other, CNN reported. The firing also raised questions as to whether Pompeo has improperly used taxpayer funds.

The Inspector General Act of 1978 established federal inspectors general as permanent offices in dozens of federal government agencies. Federal inspectors general are independent and nonpartisan officers, assisting Congress in oversight of the executive branch. Simply put, they're government watchdogs.

They're authorized to "combat waste, fraud, and abuse within their affiliated federal entities," according to the Congressional Research Service, and provide findings and recommendations that "may save the government millions of dollars per year."

There are 74 inspectors general across the federal government. Many inspectors general are appointed by the president and require Senate confirmation, but some are also appointed by the heads of their affiliated federal entities.

Trump has turned the government into a 'hub of cronies and ideological zealots'

Linick is the fourth IG Trump has pushed out, and his firing sparked outrage among veterans of the oversight and intelligence community.

"Trump demands loyalty, which means no criticism is allowed and covering up waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct is required," wrote Michael Bromwich, the former Justice Department inspector general. "Airing such matters is the legal job description of IGs. At the first sign the work of IGs affects him, he fires them. He is dismantling the IG system."

Bromwich also later referred to Trump's history of sidelining officials who investigate or speak out against him as "Friday night massacres."

Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College, also told Insider that Trump's attacks on inspectors general will increase "incentives for corruption" and result in a decline of "democratic resilience."

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University historian and expert on authoritarianism, echoed that view and told Insider that Trump has turned the federal government "into a hub of cronies and ideological zealots."

She added that his actions resemble those of autocratic leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

"Authoritarian governance is all about avoiding accountability and removing anyone who thinks differently," Ben-Ghiat said. "Trump's firing of officials tasked with oversight is consistent with the purges enacted by Orbán, Erdogan, and other authoritarian leaders, although the penalties for the purges vary widely."

Former IG: Trump's firing spree shows he values 'personal loyalty' above all else

On April 3, the president fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who provoked Trump's ire when he alerted Congress about an anonymous whistleblower's complaint accusing Trump of trying to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 election.

The whistleblower complaint became the catalyst for the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, after which Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump of both charges earlier this year.

On April 7, Trump abruptly removed the Pentagon's acting watchdog, Glenn Fine, who had also been tapped to oversee the execution of the $2 trillion stimulus package Congress had passed for coronavirus relief.

On May 2, Trump announced he would replace Christi Grimm, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acting inspector general with Jason Weida, an assistant US attorney in Boston.

Grimm angered Trump after she released a report in March that said there were "severe shortages" of testing kits in the US, "widespread shortages" of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) at hospitals across the country, and significant delays in getting coronavirus results. The deficits hampered the US's ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus outbreak and curb its spread, the report found.

Trump tore into Grimm during an April 6 news conference and accused her findings of being politically motivated.

"Where did he come from, the inspector general? What's his name?" Trump said when asked about the HHS report.

He later attacked Grimm on Twitter as well, writing, "Why didn't the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report."

(Grimm joined the inspector general's office in 1999 during the Clinton administration and has served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. She is not a political appointee.)

Joel Brenner, who served as the National Security Agency's (NSA) IG under President George W. Bush's administration, told MSNBC that Trump's firing spree is another indication that he believes officials owe him "personal loyalty" above all else.

"It's not only that, in each of these cases, the inspector general has done exactly what he or she was supposed to do, which was to serve in a nonpartisan way and to report honestly about shenanigans going on in the executive branch," Brenner said. "The president is not just attacking several IGs, he's attacking the entire institution of inspectors general."

"He's attacking the idea that the Congress has the power, under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, to enact laws necessary and proper, to see that the laws are carried out," Brenner added. "What the president obviously believes, and has said on other occasions, is that everybody in the government owes him personal loyalty. And the president is really saying to the Congress, 'You can't put somebody in the executive branch who I can't completely control and will tell you anything that I don't want you to know about.'"