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Brian Klaas, Opinion contributor 3:18 a.m. ET June 21, 2017

President Trump in the Cabinet Room on June 13, 2017.(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

The United States government is suffering from a new phenomenon: the Trump Brain Drain. For the first time in memory, the American government is havingdifficulty recruitingthe best and the brightest at thehighest levelsof power.

Qualified public servants areturning downplum government jobs because they don't want to be exposed to the risks of serving in President Trump'sWhite House. West Wing power-brokers are lawyering up (even Trumps lawyer hashireda lawyer). A special counsel is reportedly investigating the president himself for possibly obstructing justice.

The reputational risk of working for Trumps administration is enormous, and it's not just because of the endless spiralingscandals. There's alsothe now routineTrumpian ritual of sacrificing his staff on his altar of self-sabotage.We all know the drill: Sean Spicer or Sarah Huckabee Sanders or another sacrificial lamb offers up a flimsy lie to protect Trump. (He fired Comey because he was toohard on HillaryClinton!) Trump repays the favor by contradicting his staff almost immediately on Twitter or TV. (I fired him because of the Russia thing.)

Yet working for this president has become a bewildering exercise in trying to figure out whats worse: paying exorbitant legal fees, being tossed under the proverbial bus by your boss, orrisking becoming a national punchline (we almost feel sorry for you, Sean). The loyalty that Trump infamously demands from subordinates is clearly not a two-way street.

At least there are job perks. Build your CV with the unique experience of being subpoenaed by Congress. Practice your leader worship skills as youre forced to proclaimyour fawning admiration for Trump during a public Cabinet meeting. And if those dont entice you, who wouldnt jump at the chance to work for a beleaguered president withrecord low approval ratings, a hot temper, and a stalled legislative agenda?

The United States is less safe and government is less effective when top talent must think twice about serving the president.

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Less than five months into the Trump presidency, there is a record number of vacancies. Of 558 key presidential appointments requiring Senate confirmation, only43 have beenfilled(less than 8% of the total). And before you echo the frequently tweeted but incorrect Trump accusation that this is due to Democrat "OBSTRUCTIONISTS, remember that405of the 558 positionsdont even have a nominee yet. This snails pace of selecting peoplewhich involves getting them to agree to serveis unprecedented in modern history.

When the post of FBI director opened up (through, shall we say, questionable means), at least fivededicated public servants publicly withdrew from consideration.Several seasoned veterans pulled themselves out of therunningto replace Michael Flynn as national security adviser. EvenKellyanne Conways husbandwithdrewfrom consideration for a powerful Justice Department role (perhaps he had learned some alternative factslife inside the Trump administration from a well-placed counselor?).

The Trump Brain Drain is sapping talent beyond the White House, too. Six cyber security executives toldReutersthat Trumps caustic attacks on intelligence agencies had provoked a marked surge in skilled hackers and cyber talent leaving government agencies to pursue careers in the private sector.Even lawyers, who used to flock to Trump like moths to a litigious orange flame, are now staying away. Four different law firmsdeclinedto represent Trump not only because they feared that Trump wont listen to their legal advice but also because working with Trump wouldkill recruitmentfor their firms the trickle-down economics of the Trump Brain Drain in action.

Of course, there are many, many excellent and experienced public servants in the Trump administration (Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security AdviserH.R. McMasterand Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao spring to mind). But Trumps top day-to-day advisers are no dream team. We must call an unqualified spade an unqualified spade.

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There's hardly anyone on Trump's senior staff who hasushered abill through Congress. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman, has never held elective officeand came to his job withvirtually no experienceat the federal level. Two of Trumps top advisers now some of the most influential people in the world arewoefully unqualified relatives. And former Breitbart chief Steve Bannon has as much business being in the Oval Office as Russian ambassadorSergey Kislyak, yet here we are.

It gets worse. You could start a joke by saying A neurosurgeon and a wedding planner walked into a bar but there's a real-world punchline. Last week, Trumpappointedhis familyswedding planner to run federal housingin New York. Her boss, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, is an impressive neurosurgeon, but its hard to see how operating on brains is a relevant qualification for his post.

In other words, Trumps hiring decisions are compounding the recruitment brain drain because many people he selects are unprepared for their roles. Unless he changes his ways, his presidency will continue to languish from the one-two punch of his own incompetence and the governments inability to recruit top talent.

Brian Klaas is a fellow in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author ofThe Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy. Follow him on Twitter@brianklaas.

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