Is the State Department just under-priced real estate?
The Trump Administration has removed dozens of State Department people, and more are streaming out. First, the entire senior administrative team resigned, and there have been dozens more since then who’ve left or not been requested to stay. Most of these are career positions, not political appointees.
As former Ambassador Daniel Fried said on Rachael Maddow, it’s not unusual for a new administration to shuffle the top positions, but new administrations don’t usually remove the existing employees until their replacements are approved, in place, and they’ve had time to bring the new people up to speed. That way, things move smoothly without a break. It’s worked well for prior administration turnovers.
Trump hasn’t even nominated people for most of these positions. There’s almost nobody except Rex Tillerson in place, and Tillerson is MIA, not on site and generally unavailable. According to The Atlantic, the Department is the organizational equivalent of a ghost town.
The flags in the lobby of the State Department stood bathed in sunlight and silence on a recent afternoon. “It’s normally so busy here,” marveled a State Department staffer as we stood watching the emptiness. “People are usually coming in for meetings, there’s lots of people, and now it’s so quiet.” The action at Foggy Bottom has instead moved to the State Department cafeteria where, in the absence of work, people linger over countless coffees with colleagues. (“The cafeteria is so crowded all day,” a mid-level State Department officer said, adding that it was a very unusual sight. “No one’s doing anything.”) As the staffer and I walked among the tables and chairs, people with badges chatted over coffee; one was reading his Kindle.
“It just feels empty,” a recently departed senior State official told me.
They say later:
Sometimes, the deconstruction of the administrative state is quite literal. After about two dozen career staff on the seventh floor—the State Department’s equivalent of a C suite—were told to find other jobs, some with just 12 hours’ notice, construction teams came in over Presidents’ Day weekend and began rebuilding the office space for a new team and a new concept of how State’s nerve center would function. (This concept hasn’t been shared with most of the people who are still there.) The space on Mahogany Row, the line of wood-paneled offices including that of the secretary of state, is now a mysterious construction zone behind blue tarp.
Is this some real estate deal where Trump wants to flip the space and the Department of State is a tear-down standing in his way?
The Washington Post reported that Tillerson skipped the State Department’s annual announcement on human rights:
In a break with long-standing tradition only rarely breached, Tillerson’s remarks were limited to a short written introduction to the lengthy report. Nor did any senior State Department official make on-camera comments that are typically watched around the world, including by officials in authoritarian countries where abuses are singled out in the report.
Instead, a senior administration official talked to reporters by phone and only on the condition of anonymity.
“The report speaks for itself,” the administration official said. “We’re very, very proud of it. The facts should really be the story here.”
I don’t mean to sound like fourteen-year-old, but really. Oh. My. God. This report is one of the most important State Department reports, and Tillerson not only didn’t present it, nobody did. One scared guy called around to apologize. Anonymously.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hates the State Department, and he especially hates the annual human rights report. Because it always documents the stuff he does, like killing his opponents.
Trump’s proposed budget would cut the State budget by 37%. For all his complaints about slow approvals, Trump hasn’t nominated many people for State. Even when he does, Outside of Tillerson himself, Trump hasn’t vetted his nominees. The approval process is slow for a reason.
It’s time for the Trump administration to begin to purge these saboteurs before it’s too late.
Sean Hannity speaking on Fox TV
@RealDonaldTrump needs to purge Leftists from executive branch before disloyal, illegal & treasonist acts sink us. https://t.co/o1DYtgA7aL
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) March 6, 2017
No need for a purge at State. It won’t be in place long enough to matter.
Is this really in the US interests? Even if Trump was a rabid isolationist — which he clearly isn’t — this will be very bad for the nation.
