--- title: The 3 People Undoing Government While Donald Trump Tweets description: Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson and Betsy Devos, all members of Donald Trump's Cabinet, have been undoing government as we have come to know it. canonical: https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-26T11:40:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:42:05.519Z article:section: Politics og:title: The 3 People Undoing Government While Donald Trump Tweets og:description: Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson and Betsy Devos, all members of Donald Trump's Cabinet, have been undoing government as we have come to know it. og:url: https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ebc9263b96872ae/6988e370fb4eac3e608944f6/the-wrecking-crew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6493 og:image:height: 3652 og:image:alt: the-wrecking-crew og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 3 People Undoing Government While Donald Trump Tweets twitter:description: Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson and Betsy Devos, all members of Donald Trump's Cabinet, have been undoing government as we have come to know it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ebc9263b96872ae/6988e370fb4eac3e608944f6/the-wrecking-crew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # While Trump Is Tweeting, These 3 People Are Undoing American Government as We Know It > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Speaks Out [Watch (HLS stream): EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Speaks Out](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qXh2hnLM.m3u8) (21:43)  _Published 2017-10-18. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to TIME Magazine writer Justin Worland about his vision for the EPA._  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Oct 26, 2017 11:40 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded by his cabinet as he signs an executive order entitled "Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch" in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 13, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded by his cabinet as he signs an executive order entitled "Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch" in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 13, 2017. Jonathan Ernst—REUTERS  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Oct 26, 2017 11:40 AM UTC [Stephen K. Bannon](http://time.com/4657665/steve-bannon-donald-trump/) was still chief White House strategist when he declared that the mission of the Donald Trump Administration would be “deconstruction of the administrative state.” The opaque, academic language was at odds with Bannon’s swashbuckling style, but that turned out to be appropriate. The actual work of dismantling the sprawling apparatus of the Executive Branch–the specialized courts, byzantine rulemaking bodies and independent enforcement officers–would be carried out by people who did not make headlines. “If you look at these Cabinet appointees,” [Bannon](http://time.com/4907060/steve-bannon-donald-trump-timeline/) said in February, “they were all selected for a reason. And that is the deconstruction.”  Illustration by Edel Rodriguez for TIME **_Read more:_** [**_Working in Trump’s Washington is Testing Ben Carson’s Beliefs_**](http://time.com/4998263/governments-hesitant-defender/) For most of the year since Trump’s stunning election win, his pronouncements have commanded the public’s attention the way an unexpected announcement does on a long plane ride. But on the ground, things have been happening. Quietly, the Administration has taken thousands of actions, affecting everyone from the poorest day laborer to the richest investment banker. And it’s touting its work. “No President or Administration has deregulated or withdrawn as many anticipated regulatory actions as this one in this short amount of time,” says White House communications director Hope Hicks. How you feel about those efforts may depend on how you vote. An October 2017 Pew Research Center report found that 66% of Democrats believe government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public interest, compared with just 31% of Republicans. That’s one of the greatest partisan divides on the issue in decades. **_Read more:_**[ **_I_**](http://time.com/4998279/company-man-in-washington/)[**_nside Scott Pruitt’s Mission to Remake the_**](http://time.com/4998279/company-man-in-washington/)[ **_EPA_**](http://time.com/4998279/company-man-in-washington/) In Washington, philosophy tends to disappear into the swamp Trump pledged to drain. His White House is stocked with former executives and industry insiders who have power over issues in which former clients have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. By mid-June, according to USA Today, more than 100 former federal lobbyists had found jobs in the Trump Administration, 69 of them in agencies they had tried to influence from the outside. **_Read more:_** [**_What Betsy DeVos Gets Right About Campus Sexual Assault_**](http://time.com/4998269/betsy-devos-right-campus-sexual-assault/) Consider: it was President Bill Clinton who signed a repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had prevented banks from betting your money on Wall Street. And President George W. Bush imposed almost $30 billion in new regulatory costs on Americans, according to the Heritage Foundation. Ultimately, as with much in life, good government relies on the good faith of those in whom we place our trust. Which is why so much rides on the crew that Trump has put in charge of his D.C. demolition project. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/"},"headline":"While Trump Is Tweeting, These 3 People Are Undoing American Government as We Know It","datePublished":"2017-10-26T11:40:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:42:05.519Z","description":"While the President tweets and fulminates, his Cabinet is rewriting the rules of government","url":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Government"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ebc9263b96872ae/6988e370fb4eac3e608944f6/the-wrecking-crew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Massimo Calabresi","jobTitle":"Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.","url":"https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ebc9263b96872ae/6988e370fb4eac3e608944f6/the-wrecking-crew.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"the-wrecking-crew","caption":"Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Jonathan Ernst—REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/","name":"While Trump Is Tweeting, These 3 People Are Undoing American Government as We Know It"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Speaks Out","description":"EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to TIME Magazine writer Justin Worland about his vision for the EPA.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qXh2hnLM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-18T19:54:01.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qXh2hnLM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/","duration":"PT21M43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```