A few years ago someone sold a script to Hollywood based on a Reddit post asking an interesting question: Could you destroy the Roman empire if you traveled back in time with a single Marine infantry battalion?
I know how that sounds. A movie based on a Reddit post? But if you go and read the post, it’s actually pretty ingenious. The writer, James Erwin, has a knack for storytelling and a pretty good eye for detail.
And the idea is kind of captivating. On the one hand, the Marines have machine guns and grenades and helicopters and long-range communication. But on the other hand, all of that technology is dependent on technologically complicated supplies. No GPS. No electricity. No more fuel or ammunition than they have on-hand.
Meanwhile, the Romans have numbers on their side. They know the terrain. They are deeply integrated into their own supply chain. And they are hard men used to life in the ancient world:
You can see why Warner Brothers was willing to take a flier on Erwin’s story treatment. I mention all of this because I was thinking about Erwin’s tale last week watching Reince Priebus being ousted from the Trump White House.
Priebus was never really a good fit for Trump World. Maybe if the president’s goal had been to work with congressional Republicans to pass legislation, or build the party’s grassroots, or fundraise on behalf of Republican candidates—you know, the normal stuff presidents do—then Priebus would have made for an okay chief of staff.
But none of those things are priorities for President Trump. I don’t say that with any sort of judgment. Maybe you think that Trump’s goals (draining the swamp and MAGA-ing like it’s 1959) are more important than legislating and party-building. Maybe you don’t. The rightness or wrongness of Trump’s priorities isn’t really the point. They simply are what they are.
But what this all meant is that Priebus was already at a tremendous disadvantage coming into the White House because his skill-set didn’t mesh well with the president’s priorities. But then things got even worse. He was surrounded by Trump family members who are essentially unfireable. And when Anthony Scaramucci showed up to take the communications director job, things got really weird.
Not only did Scaramucci have no relevant experience for running the White House comms shop, he had a temperament unsuited to the job. Hence his tirade against Priebus for leaking, in which he (wrongly) accused Priebus of committing a felony. Which was followed by his unintentionally public attempt to leak against Priebus and Steve Bannon.
By the end, Priebus wasn’t quite like a Marine fighting against the Roman Legion. He was more like a mildly-competent 19th century general dropped the middle of the Mad Max universe.
And Immortan Joe has dispatched him accordingly.
