I missed this a few weeks ago but holy crap.
Six months ago, Lynne Patton was a party planner. On Monday, she took the helm of New York’s federal housing office, a promotion she won after making enemies at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and fumbling a job as senior adviser to Secretary Ben Carson.
It pays to have been a party planner for the Trumps.
Patronage is as old as politics, but Patton’s swift rise to power has startled even some Trump administration insiders.
When President Donald Trump dispatched her to HUD in February — a month before Carson’s arrival — industry lobbyists mostly shrugged it off. But the former events planner quickly made a mark, big-footing experienced staffers and flubbing the rollout of Carson’s first public appearances as secretary, according to people close to the secretary.
During his confirmation hearing, Carson had promised to take a nationwide listening tour to get his bearings, a move widely praised by housing activists. Planning the tour fell to the professional — Patton.
It didn’t go well. The launch was barely publicized, denying the new HUD secretary news coverage as he visited his hometown of Detroit. In other cities, Carson praised programs targeted for budget cuts, a blunder that suggested he hadn’t been properly coached by staff.
In April, the secretary was ridiculed when he got stuck in an elevator at a Miami housing project. Soon after, his staff suspended the listening tour, which his own allies chalked up as a disaster.
I guess since Trump has been failing upwards his whole life, it’s a quality he admires in others too?