All The President’s Men, Or Not.

President Trump’s nomination of Ken Kies as chief counsel and assistant secretary for the Internal Revenue Service, is baffling at best and counterproductive to his promises of draining the Swamp at worst.

Kies is a Washington insider, a Deep State operative with divided loyalties. He has operated inside the federal revolving door since 1981, moving between government and lobbying, registering more than 500 times on behalf of various clients. His political contributions suggest close ties to the Mike Pence wing of the Republican party — precisely the faction that has resisted President Trump’s effort to reform the government, dismantle the IRS, deep state and confront politicized nonprofit networks and NGO’s.

Instead of cleaning house, Kies appears to be preserving it.

He has been reluctant to remove entrenched IRS officials tied to past abuses, including Holly Paz (top deputy of Lois Lerner), Robert Choi and Anthony Sacco, who were all deeply involved in the Tea Party targeting scandal.

Sacco publicly pledged to “resist” President Trump. Paz, a prolific Obama donor, was accused of lying to Congress by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2013 — yet she remained in a senior IRS role until being placed on leave in August 2025. To this day, there is no public confirmation that any of these officials have been officially terminated.

Kies has also aggressively defended Kevin Salinger, his protégé and a senior IRS official who oversees day-to-day tax policy operations and supervises an army of government attorneys. Salinger wields enormous influence over whether Trump’s tax agenda is implemented — or quietly buried.

At a recent Tax Council meeting, Kies praised Salinger for working “tirelessly to faithfully implement President Trump’s agenda across all of the tax policy initiatives.” Really?

Salinger has a long record of involvement with progressive activist organizations, including extensive pro bono work for Immigration Equality, a group that pushes open-border policies, especially for LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants.

He also served on the board of El Barrio Angels, which provides immigration legal services in Los Angeles. These are not neutral civic activities. These are ideological commitments.

If one of the president’s core goals is to depoliticize the IRS after its weaponization under the Obama administration (Obama’s third term), and dismantle the Deep State, placing figures so deeply embedded in Democrat activist networks into senior roles is a recipe for sabotage. You would think Trump would recognize this.