how Trump loyalists are taking over the US state department

Washington was hit in Washington last month when Liu Olovsky, a lower and short-lived officer, was appointed director general of the US foreign service-one of the senior leadership of the State Department.

Former national security lawyer Olosky entered foreign service just four years ago. In his new job, which usually goes to a veteran diplomat, he is actually the head of human resources in one of the largest government agencies in the United States

It was like “keeping the junior military officer in charge of the Pentagon activist system”, the foreign service union AFSA said.

However, Olsky had one thing for him: President Donald Trump has been members of the Ben Franklin Fellowship (BFF), a conservative-jerk network of diplomats who have served retired and diplomats since entering the White House.

The BFF emphasizes that it is non -party but Trump’s America does not create any bones about its support for the first agenda. In a blog post late last year, its president, Phil Linderman, said that the role of the company was to lead the careerists of the State Department “diplomacy that encouraged American sovereignty, strong national boundaries, fair trade practices and pluralism”.

Linderman said that “Trump-signed and conservative FSO [foreign service officers] And civil service workers are a distinct minority in the state, but they are there. “These national officials are now promoting top posts across the division.

Since the inauguration of Trump, the FTT has identified five BFF Fellows, who took a senior role in the State Department. One of them is Christopher Landau, the US ambassador to Mexico during Trump’s first term, who was appointed the Deputy Secretary of State Secretary in March.

However, the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary and Senior Bureau officials from Fellow’s Under Secretary has also been tapped-a significant success rate for a company created last year.

An official said that many of the BFF Fellows are now promoted to be promoted, “Their main – and the primary – the qualifications are they agree with Trump’s agenda”.

The person said, “The state is eroding itself from inside.”

Some even described the BFF as “Maga Deep State” – a surname Simon Hankinson, one of the founders of Fellowship.

Hankinson Hankinson Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told the Financial Times, “The perfect last thing we want for us is to re-establish a deep state-this is just that.”

“And the expression carries the luggage at Maga.”

He also dismissed the BFF critics that it was composed of dissatisfied white foreign service officers who felt damaged by the State Department’s diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility policies. An officer called it “Under performing White Men”.

The state is wiping itself from inside

Hankinson said it was clear that “women were promoted at high rates compared to men for the last 20 years”, but he emphasized that he did not want to replace only one type of discrimination with another.

“What we want to see is the contrary to the equilibrium of the results, to return the equilibrium of talent and opportunity,” he said.

However, the founder of the Fellowship is proud of his growing influence, saying that they want to imitate the success of the Federalist Society, the conservative network that provided many judicial nominees to Trump in his first term.

In his blog post, Linderman said that the BFF organizers were following the “PlayBook” of the Federalist Society.

“This is definitely a model that we remember,” Hankinson said.

The State Department’s headquarters, where the workers at Fogi Bottom have been changed in Washington Para, are noticed by the larger people by adding more attention to the company’s other developments.

These include the US Agency for International Development shuttering, the 10,000-powerful agency has become a symbol of American soft energy with a $ 44 billion budget.

The US Department of State has also been very disappointed with the arrest of the students accused of being involved in the State Department and on campus protests in Trump’s exile program. Since the change of government, thousands of students have been proud to withdraw the visa.

However, the workers’ changes have also raised concerns. The House Foreign Affairs Committee ranked Democrat Gregory Mics Rubyo “replacing the political loyal loyal of the professionals, undermining one of the basic principles of foreign services.”

He said that one of the most obvious examples was Olsky’s appointment, who once worked as a general advice of the Daily Caller News Foundation of Tucker Carlson, as a senior bureau officer of the Bureau of Global Talent Management. He replaced the black Marsia Bernicat, who is black.

Mics said Rubio appointed an entry-level officer with a foreign tour to lead Global Talent Management, instead of decades of jobs to a two-time ambassador, who became an African American woman, “Mics said. “It’s not about race – it’s about experience, integrity and basic qualifications.”

The State Department did not respond to requests to comment.

Trump never hid his disobedience to the “deep state” that he blocked the office in his first term and cleared his desire to more closely with his Maga goals, dismissing senior bureaucrats to be dishonest.

In a statement after his inauguration, the White House State Department directed to adjust to the “Principles, Programs, Workers and Activities” of “American Foreign Principles”, which keeps America and its interests first.

The process began before Trump began its second term, his transition teams asked a large number of senior career diplomats to resign from their role.

Pure was considered abnormal: Most political recruits resigned when the new president’s post, but the career’s FSOs tend to remain in the administration from one administration to another.

Democratic Senator Jenny Shaheen says, “The Decades of Serving Republicans and Democrats were the” non -governmental employees “with” non -governmental employees “with the key to US national protection.

Some political appointments have also raised eyebrows, even among the Republicans. Darren BT, who starred in Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Under Secretary in February, served as Trump’s speech writer in his first term, but he spoke at a conference at the White Nationalists that he quit his position in 2018. Last year he announced in X -— “If you want to work things, suitable white men must be in charge”.

Rubio defended BT’s appointment that he was brought to the board “because he is strongly committed to finish the censorship programs operated outside the State Department”.

US diplomats personally say that experienced career FSOs are now retiring or resigning in some parts of the agency’s political development.

One said, “They are bleeding experts at a rate that is simply unprecedented.”

“The state is being taken by dangerous radicals.”