TFG officials who allegedly pilfered swag did more than embarrass the country
Brett Bruen
It’s not for you. That lesson was made pretty darn clear when I started out as an American diplomat two decades ago. We were told in orientation courses to expect many invitations to fancy events with important people during our careers. There would also be gifts — a lot of them. They are for the country, not our own personal use.
Many of the senior officials in the Trump administration evidently skipped that portion of the protocol class. The State Department’s Inspector General is now looking into how a large number of gifts, namely items with Trump’s name engraved on them and a $5,800 bottle of rare Japanese whisky, went missing over the last couple years. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, under whose watch this occurred, blamed the “incompetence” of a staff he so ably led. Pompeo himself says he has no recollection of receiving the whiskey.
These are meant to be perfunctory items for presentation. They have always been exchanged as more symbolic gestures than meant to be taken home. The United States is known the world over for giving particularly bad gifts. Secretary of State John Kerry once handed over two large Idaho potatoes to his Russian counterpart.
But there is a real national security danger in the secretary or his staff possibly making off with alcohol or other assorted gifts received from foreign countries and the gifts American taxpayers bought to advance our foreign policy. If gifts are purloined by the individuals in charge, they can quickly become a powerful means of exerting personal persuasion on policy matters. Breaking the taboo on keeping these items will inevitably lead nations, particularly those subjected to greater pressure on issues like human rights from Washington, to expand their efforts to use gifts to entice or elicit favors from our officials.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-officials-who-allegedly-pilfered-swag-did-more-than-embarrass-the-country/ar-AAPFCbp
Hey now! Idaho is proud of their potatoes. They have "Famous Potatoes" written on their license plates.