Boy they don't get it at all. In putting Elaine Chao at Transportation, Trump is paying McConnell for protection. Now, it only pays off for McConnell if Trump has no problem with his other nominees and Chao doesn't stab him in the back and need to be removed publicly. Serve successfully and Chao can enjoy all the D.C. rewards of being a cabinet secretary present or former. It's brilliant. Trump doesn't even really pay. Of all the agencies that he needs to deal with I suspect that transportation is near the bottom of his list of worries. Trucks are trucking. Planes are flying, and if work is needed on the roads, well Transportation is mostly a pass-through agency for money to the states.
Trump is just used to a much meaner game with much tougher dudes that the Post is used to dealing with.
Absolutely. Trump immediately got Reince Priebus to pull leadership out of the RNC. Since then he has been dismantling all of his enemies. Brilliant!