In first month of Trump presidency, State Department has been sidelined
Source: MSN/Washington Post
The Trump administration in its first month has largely benched the State Department from its long-standing role as the preeminent voice of U.S. foreign policy, curtailing public engagement and official travel and relegating Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to a mostly offstage role.
Decisions on hiring, policy and scheduling are being driven by a White House often wary of the foreign policy establishment and struggling to set priorities and write policy on the fly.
The most visible change at the State Department is the month-long lack of daily press briefings, a fixture since John Foster Dulles was secretary of state in the 1950s. The televised question-and-answer session is watched closely around the world, and past administrations have pointed proudly to the accountability of having a government spokesman available to domestic and foreign press almost every day without fail.
Tillerson has also been notably absent from White House meetings with foreign leaders. The State Department was represented by the acting deputy, Tom Shannon, at the presidents discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Because he was en route to Bonn for a Group of 20 meeting, Tillerson did not join Trumps meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although the two had a working dinner the night before.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/in-first-month-of-trump-presidency-state-department-has-been-sidelined/ar-AAneCaQ?li=BBnb7Kz
The amazing thing is that Trump is doing this to himself since they cannot even agree on who they want to nominate as Tillerson's deputies. This is just pure incompetence despite the fact that Republicans hold all the branches of government.
truthisfreedom
(23,155 posts)"This is just pure incompetence despite the fact that Republicans hold all the branches of government" should read
"This is just pure incompetence despite the fact that Russians hold all the branches of government."
"This is just pure incompetence because Republicans hold all the branches of government"
nocalflea
(1,387 posts)Trump and co. demand loyalty.The leakers are Obama holdovers-so they keep complaing.It's not just the Trump administration, his loyal followers are spouting this B.S.
Their paronia has caused staffing problems-NSC candidates turned down job because they weren't allowed to pick their staff (Trump finally had to give in on this).
This demand of fealty of new hires and the distrust for career diplomats is beyond counterproductive.I wonder if they even understand what the state department does-why it exists,why embassies exist ?
The paronia drives this administrations incompetence.
The sad part is that the whole world is watching.
America is not looking "great".
America is looking pathetically small.And it's looking smaller every day.Pretty soon,we'll look totally inconsequential.
The Trump administration- How to destroy a world power in four weeks.
BumRushDaShow
(129,449 posts)but the Pentagon did as well.
Have any of the departments that always provided daily briefings, had any at all yet?
Seems the answer is probably "no".
Cosmocat
(14,572 posts)And, 1/3 of the population, in their deluded fantasy world of liberal hate, could literally care less, while another 1/3 is stuck in their hapless "they are both the same" haze ...
IF we happen to survive this, IF this country is not so lost that it will somehow gets past the stupid on steroids and and find away to put decent, honorable people in power again, can we even get close to where we were before?
dchill
(38,532 posts)State Department's one major mission is to get Vlad's oil flowing. It pays.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)They don't know what the fuck they're doing.
dmosh42
(2,217 posts)Trump and assoc. to get shares also. All part of "Putin plan".