diplomatic establishment, know this is a problem. the people who are on the inside know that their departments cat run without these people. is the administration hearing this? are the people at the highest levels getting in the president s ear and saying, we really have to make this a priority. well, i think secretary tillerson has fallen down on the job here and isn t pushing hard against the white house and telling them that it has to be done. and there s no one else who has the authority to do this. you know, the undersecretary i mean, there s almost no one home. and you know, we go back to that famous statement from steve bannon about destroying or deconstructing the administrative state. if this is what deconstructing the administrative state is about, then it s suicidal for our country. it s just not acceptable. all right. guys, thanks very much for the conversation. it s made us a little bit smarter about this. max steyer and daniel benjamin.
policy and there s no one who s really empowered to make real changes. it s not a train it s not a train-running department, actually. it s one of those things about long-term thinking, about intelligence gathering, about analysis. it s not just a place where things get done. max, let me ask you. you were involved in advising the trump administration on this transition. max, what did you do wrong? it s a long list that i did wrong. but the basicnt ishe right one, which is you can t run the government effectively only through the white house. it s a very large, complex, and responsible for a lot of different functions that are vital to the american public, including national security and if you don t have your team on the field, you can t run it effectively. you can t deal with the inevitable crisis. and you can t actually pursue your agenda effectively. i do need to correct one small point. there is, in fact, a deputy secretary at state. john sullivan, who s filling both the poli