Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson has isolated himself from his own department and allowed
subordinates to fill a handful of top positions with people who actively
opposed Donald Trump’s election, according to current and former State
Department officials and national security experts with specific knowledge of
the situation.
News
reports often depict a White House “in chaos.” But the
real chaos, according to three State Department employees who spoke with American
Greatness on the condition of anonymity, is at Foggy Bottom.
Rumors have
circulated for months that Tillerson either plans to resign or
is waiting for the president to fire him. The staffers describe an amateur
secretary of state who has “checked out” and effectively removed himself from
major decision making.
Hundreds of
Empty Desks
About 200 State Department jobs require Senate confirmation. But the Senate cannot confirm nominees it does not have. More than nine months into the new administration, most of the senior State Department positions—assistant and deputy assistant secretary posts—remain unfilled.
About 200 State Department jobs require Senate confirmation. But the Senate cannot confirm nominees it does not have. More than nine months into the new administration, most of the senior State Department positions—assistant and deputy assistant secretary posts—remain unfilled.
What’s
more, the United States currently has no ambassador to the European Union, or
to key allies such as France, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and Saudi
Arabia. Meantime, Obama Administration holdovers remain ensconced in the
department and stationed at embassies in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle
East.
The
leadership vacuum has been filled by a small group opposed to the president’s
“America First” agenda.
At the
heart of the problem, these officials say, are the two people closest to
Tillerson: chief of staff Margaret Peterlin and senior policy advisor Brian
Hook, who runs the State Department’s in-house think tank.
Peterlin
and Hook are longtime personal friends who current staffers say are running the
department like a private fiefdom for their benefit and in opposition to the
president and his stated policies.
‘Boxing
Out’ Trump Supporters
The lack of staffing gives the duo unprecedented power over State Department policy. Since joining Tillerson’s team, Peterlin and Hookhave created a tight bottleneck, separating the 75,000 State Department staffers—true experts in international relations—from the secretary. As the New York Times reported in August, “all decisions, no matter how trivial, must be sent to Mr. Tillerson or his top aides: Margaret Peterlin, his chief of staff, and Brian Hook, the director of policy planning.” In practice, however, that has meant Peterlin and Hook make the decisions.
The lack of staffing gives the duo unprecedented power over State Department policy. Since joining Tillerson’s team, Peterlin and Hookhave created a tight bottleneck, separating the 75,000 State Department staffers—true experts in international relations—from the secretary. As the New York Times reported in August, “all decisions, no matter how trivial, must be sent to Mr. Tillerson or his top aides: Margaret Peterlin, his chief of staff, and Brian Hook, the director of policy planning.” In practice, however, that has meant Peterlin and Hook make the decisions.
More
important, sources who spoke with American Greatness say,
Peterlin and Hook have stymied every effort by pro-Trump policy officials to
get jobs at the State Department.
“Peterlin
is literally sitting on stacks of résumés,” one national security expert
told American Greatness. Together, Peterlin and Hook are “boxing
out anyone who supports Trump’s foreign policy agenda,” he added.
Peterlin,
an attorney and former Commerce Department official in the George W. Bush
Administration, was hired to help guide political appointments through the
vetting and confirmation process. She reportedly bonded with Tillerson during
his confirmation hearings, and he hired her as his chief of staff.
Peterlin
then brought in Hook, who co-founded the John Hay Initiative, a group of former
Mitt Romney foreign-policy advisors who publicly refused to support Trump
because he would “act in ways that make America less safe.” In a May 2016
profile of NeverTrump Republicans, Hook told Politico,
“Even if you say you support him as the nominee, you go down the list of his
positions and you see you disagree on every one.”
Hook now
directs the department’s Office of Policy Planning, responsible for churning
out policy briefs and helping to shape the nation’s long-term strategic agenda.
NeverTrumpers
on Parade
In September, Peterlin and Hook hired David Feith, a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer and the son of Douglas J. Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq War. Feith shares with Peterlin and Hook a deepdislike for President Trump. Feith, according to one State Department employee with knowledge of the hire, had been rejected by the White House precisely because of his opposition to the president and his policies. Peterlin and Hook forced him through anyway.
In September, Peterlin and Hook hired David Feith, a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer and the son of Douglas J. Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq War. Feith shares with Peterlin and Hook a deepdislike for President Trump. Feith, according to one State Department employee with knowledge of the hire, had been rejected by the White House precisely because of his opposition to the president and his policies. Peterlin and Hook forced him through anyway.
Incredibly,
even the State Department’s spokesman, R.C. Hammond, was an outspoken
NeverTrumper before the election, frequently tweeting jibes and barbs at
the candidate. Hammond, a former aide to Newt Gingrich, is now the face and one
of the leading voices of U.S. public diplomacy.
Many of
these anti-Trump hires have occurred in the face of a hiring freeze Tillerson
imposed earlier this year following an executive order to review agency and
department staffing, along with the White House’s request to cut the State
Department’s budget by 30 percent. But rather than put a check on untrustworthy
career bureaucrats, the move had the opposite effect of empowering the
president’s opponents.
State’s
anti-Trump climate has shut out several top-notch foreign policy hands.
Kiron
Skinner, founding director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy at
Carnegie Mellon University and a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution,
worked on Trump’s national security transition team and was hired as a senior
policy advisor. She was considered for the job Hook now has in the Office of
Policy Planning. But she was isolated from career staffers and quit after a few
days.
At least
Skinner managed to get into the building. Another former Reagan Administration
staffer with decades of experience in U.S.-Russian affairs and international
economics had spent months in 2016 campaigning for the president in critical
battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio. As soon as Trump won the
election, this experienced analyst and several other pro-Trump associates were
passed over for State Department jobs. It’s to the point that even internship
candidates are being rejected if they volunteered for the Trump campaign.
Tillerson
or No, Personnel is Policy
When he agreed to take the top diplomat’s job, Tillerson reportedly asked President Trump for autonomy‚ and got it. Unfortunately, his leadership style has changed from his days running ExxonMobil. In his definitive history of ExxonMobil, journalist Steve Coll described Tillerson’s approach as open and informal. By contrast, Tillerson’s modus operandi at state has been described as isolated, unapproachable, even “draconian.”
When he agreed to take the top diplomat’s job, Tillerson reportedly asked President Trump for autonomy‚ and got it. Unfortunately, his leadership style has changed from his days running ExxonMobil. In his definitive history of ExxonMobil, journalist Steve Coll described Tillerson’s approach as open and informal. By contrast, Tillerson’s modus operandi at state has been described as isolated, unapproachable, even “draconian.”
In
government today, the maxim that “personnel is policy” is truer than ever. As a
result, the State Department mirrors the management style not of its leader,
but of Tillerson’s chief aides who are at odds with the president’s stated
foreign policy agenda.
Tillerson
this week told the Wall Street Journal he would remain on the
job “as long as the president thinks
I’m useful.” But whether it’s Tillerson behind the secretary’s
desk, or CIA Director Mike Pompeo,
or any other foreign policy hand, a State Department staffed with opponents of
the president is hardly useful to Americans who voted to reject the failed
foreign policies of the past two administrations.
President
Trump made “draining the swamp” a cornerstone of his campaign. How can he drain
the swamp if the swamp dwellers control his administration and drown out voices
of his most innovative supporters?
Chris
Buskirk, Brandon Weichert, and Ben
Boychuk contributed to this story. Content created by the
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