Loyalty Versus Competency in Life

The Perils of Devotion Trumping Proficiency in Various Realms (Vol. 5; Issue 14)

Photo: X/@lauraloomer

Late last week, a recently employed presidential advisor, Laura Loomer, convinced Trump to fire Air Force General Tim Haugh—the officer overseeing the Pentagon’s Cyber Command. Neither Pentagon officials nor Haugh received any advance notice of the termination. Haugh, a four-star general with a 33-year career in intelligence and cyber operations, learned he was fired while overseas on official business.

Laura Loomer, 31, a far-right wing conspiracy theorist, perfectly represents Trump’s Mob-like propensity to privilege fealty over ability. Let’s explore how loyalty versus competency works in friendship, in business, and in leadership. Neither an MBA nor a political science degree is required to understand the dichotomy. I turn, first, to the issue of competency versus loyalty in the complex world of friendship.

Proposing a definition for friendships risks trouble and raises questions: Do significant age differences necessarily alter them? Do they always involve involve love? And, how does one separate friendships from romances? Despite these possible perils and queries, here are a few foundations of how the competency vs. loyalty theme works in friendships.

Friendships require a number of competencies. Mature friends need to show reciprocity, meaning no one party is chasing the other. They involve the capacity for emotional intimacy, meaning that friends can expose as many vulnerabilities as strengths with one another. You want loyalty in your friends, obviously. Ideally, you trust your friends with confidences. You believe they would not spread gossip about you or otherwise betray you. Their loyalty score, if you will, may be high but you must have competency also. If your friend continually arrives late for coffees or lunches, or consistently disappoints you in other ways, their competency as a friend comes into question. No amount of loyalty overshadows friends’ inability to competently engage in mature friendship.

Loyalty is also desired in business if, for example, you are an airline hiring pilots. If United Airlines goes through the trouble to vet a new pilot, and to train them in simulators and various aircraft, then they reasonably expect the pilot to not quit within six months to accept a job with Delta. Much like occurs with friendship—albeit with potentially lethal consequences—pilots MUST also be competent. Would you trust an aviator certified in a propellor-driven Cessna to operate a jet powered Boeing 737? Obviously, if you hire for United Airlines and had to choose between loyalty and competency, you would select the latter. The pilot quitting after six months will likely disappoint you. Still, you would not select an aviator with superior loyalty but poor competency.

Returning to these two traits in the Trump administration, Loomer, the most recent acolyte (disliked by many of Trump’s other advisors), has been an unapologetic racist troll for at least the last decade. She declares herself in favor of “pro–white nationalism.” Loomer considers Islam a “cancer on humanity.” (Muslims constitute around two percent of the population, around four million Americans). She was banned from Facebook (FB) and Instagram for racist comments like this one:

Someone needs to create a non-Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.

Astonishingly, Loomer shared a video on X proclaiming:

9/11 was an inside job!

Loomer also promoted the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating local residents’ cats and dogs. She called Indian immigrants “third world invaders;” she accused tech billionaires of exploiting H-1B visas for “cheap labor.” In brief, Loomer’s short life already shows ample evidence of racism, white nationalism, and belief in numerous conspiracy theories.