Amid the frustrated disappointment of denied immigration policies and a failed healthcare bill, President Donald Trump now wants to change how government works. To accomplish this, he created an entirely new government department called the White House Office of American Innovation—and he’s putting his son-in-law in charge.
The plan is to implement campaign policies through privatizing some key federal government functions while leaning on the expertise of corporations. The new office will be led by Jared Kushner, who got off to a bad start when he described American citizens as “customers.”
“We should have excellence in government,” Kushner said in a Sunday interview published in the Washington Post. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”
People are not happy at the comparison, and many have taken to Twitter to helpfully readjust Kushner’s apparently upside down understanding of how government works.
https://twitter.com/tchhistory/status/846345740779732992
We are not customers Jared Kushner. If anything we are “shareholders” and right now our stock is going way down. So time for a change. pic.twitter.com/5Mb4gka3Bm
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) March 27, 2017
Earth to Jared Kushner: US Citizens arent customers, They are your bosses.
— NoChillMood (@ritaag) March 27, 2017
And yeah, Kushner describing citizens as ‘customers’ just underscores how he & Trump view us…as marks.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) March 27, 2017
What Kushner misses is that we are not the customers, we are the Executive Board…we have an election oversight over all of them! https://t.co/X2ITl6SMon
— Na(x8) Bat Sam! (@Bat_SamRS) March 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/Selu_Peace/status/846273045832486912
Well-run companies profit from their customers. Citizens profit from well-run governments. Jared Kushner doesn’t understand the difference. pic.twitter.com/zILnfZYjRm
— PWtham11 (@pwtham11) March 27, 2017
Even if government isn’t a business, it’s clear Kushner should hire a new marketing person.