Amateur Hour: Trump and Team Ignore State Department, Run Government Without Diplomats

[Jimbo101]

Alternet

Right-wingers have hated the State Department since the days of Joe McCarthy, but never has it been so abandoned.

Salon’s Matthew Rosza reported on Monday on the incredible shrinking man, Rex Tillerson, the formerly larger-than-life Exxon CEO turned secretary of state who — despite the world’s high level of interest in the Trump administration’s new foreign policy — has barely been seen since he was sworn in. Nobody knows whether Tillerson is just keeping out of the eye of the Trump tornado or if he’s been sidelined by the White House in favor of the “shadow secretary,” President Donald Trump’s 35-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner. Whatever the case, it’s unusual. The department is said to be rudderless and demoralized, carrying on without any sense of direction or purpose.

Monday was supposed to be the first State Department briefing since former President Barack Obama’s final day in office, but it was canceled because of the announcement of Trump’s new travel ban. One would think that would be an excellent day to begin, but apparently the administration doesn’t want the Department of State meddling in foreign affairs. The lack of these briefings is one more oddity in the new Trump regime. They were held at the State Department every day since the Eisenhower administration and for a specific purpose. Such briefings are the main method of disseminating the government’s diplomatic agenda abroad. There may not be more than a handful of American reporters and C-SPAN junkies paying attention, but they are closely watched all over the world by foreign governments. It’s been radio silence since Jan. 19.

The administration says the briefings will begin again and has hired Heather Nauert of “Fox & Friends” to lead them so perhaps all this is nothing but more inefficiency and bad management. Reports coming out of the department are dismal.

[gopiscrap]

1. These fuckers are going to get us killed

[Rex]

2. Isn't that kinda a national security threat?

I know, starting to sound like a broken record...but still, how can you run the government without an effective state department?

[OregonBlue]

3. Tillerson was appointed to negotiate oil contracts. He knows nothing about diplomacy and

he probably doesn't want to. He's just an Exxon guy.

[Girard442]

4. Gee, who do you suppose benefits from this massive trainwreck? NT