State Department

Trump Team Narrowing Search For State Department’s No. 2 Official

... the National Security Council staff led by retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn. Victoria Coates , the longtime national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), has moved over to the White House to join the NSC’s “Strategic Initiatives Group.” That group also includes professor and former Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka. Longtime senate staffer Christopher Ford has joined the NSC staff to work on non-proliferation and nuclear issues. Ford has served as chief council for the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Banking Committee and most recently the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During the George W. Bush administration, Ford was a deputy assistant secretary of state in the bureau of arms control and international security, then led by John Bolton. Former DIA and Central Command official Derek Harvey is also joining the NSC staff as a senior official dealing with the Middle East, transition sources said. Before joining the DIA in 2006, he spent 26 years as an Army intelligence officer, working ...

The State Department’s Entire Senior Administrative Team Just Resigned

... Washington Post). Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior Foreign Service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era. Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me. Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration ...

221 Million Payment To Palestinians Halted By State Department

... the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations. Congressional holds are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding after funds have been allocated. Granger released a statement Tuesday saying, “I am deeply disappointed that President Obama defied congressional oversight and released $221 million to the Palestinian territories.”. She added: “I worked to make sure that no American taxpayer dollars would fund the Palestinian Authority unless very strict conditions were met. While none of these funds will go to the Palestinian Authority because of those conditions, they will go to programs in the Palestinian territories that were still under review by Congress. The Obama Administration’s decision to release these funds was inappropriate.”. The Obama administration had for some time been pressing for the release of the money, which comes from the U. S. Agency for International ...

Several Career Diplomats Have Resigned From The State Department

... would be leaving. All had submitted their resignations prior to Donald Trump's January 20 inauguration as is required of officials holding jobs appointed by the president. They were not required to leave the foreign service but chose to retire or resign for personal reasons, the department said. While none of the officials has linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration given the unorthodox positions he's taken on many foreign policy issues. Turnover among senior leadership during presidential transitions is not unusual, although the career diplomats who are leaving the foreign service entirely had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents. The union that represents American diplomats, the American Foreign Service Association, called for the administration to quickly name successors ...

Trump Administration Choosing To Replace Several Senior State Department Diplomats

... at odds with Trump administration policy positions. The career diplomats in charge of Asia and Africa were still in their positions as of Thursday with no immediate plans to leave. William Brownfield, assistant secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, is also apparently staying for the time being. And a number of the assistant secretary positions — tasked with overseeing certain geographic areas and issues — are now held by acting heads. “While this appears to be a large turnover in a short period of time, a change of administration always brings personnel ­changes, and there is nothing unusual about rotations or retirements in the Foreign Service,” said the American Foreign Service Association’s president, Barbara Stephenson. “Rotations to new positions and retirements after a fixed number of years of service are part of the DNA of the Foreign Service. Have no doubt that the next generation of leaders is eager to step up and serve, ensuring the continuity of this great institution.”. But current and former senior officials were clear that the turnover is unusual even for a new administration, a ...

Senior Officials At Border Patrol, State Department Join Departures Under Trump

... officials at Border Patrol, State Department join departures under Trump. (AP Photo). WASHINGTON (MEREDITH) — The chief of the Border Patrol has left the agency that's in charge of securing America's borders with Mexico and Canada. According to a U. S. official and a former official, Border Patrol agents have been told that Mark Morgan is no longer on the job. It's not immediately clear whether Morgan resigned or was asked to leave. The U. S. official wasn't authorized to discuss the move before a public announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. The former official asked not to be identified before a government announcement. Morgan's departure comes a day after President Donald Trump announced plans to build a wall at the Mexican border and hire 5,000 Border Patrol agents. Another wave of departures by senior officials was reported by the Washington Post Thursday, who ...

Several Senior State Department Officials Leave Posts

... Arms Control and International Security Thomas Countryman both plan to leave their posts by Friday, the officials said. Turnover is the rule, rather than the exception, among the top officials in the U. S. government when the White House changes hands from one party to another, in this case from Democrat Barack Obama to Republican Donald Trump. In his first week in office, Trump has illustrated stark policy differences from Obama on trade and immigration. On Monday, Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and on Wednesday he ordered construction of a wall on the border with Mexico and threatened to punish U. S. cities shielding illegal immigrants. Political appointees chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate were obliged, as usual, after Trump's Nov. 8 election ...

Pres. Trump’s Administration Asks Top State Department Officials To Leave

... resignation. He had come back from retirement after the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and promised to stay through the end of the Obama administration. “This had been on course for over a year,” another official said. “He came out of retirement and promised to stay out (of) the administration. If Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders were elected, he would still be retiring.”. The firings leave a huge management hole at the State Department, with a combined 150 years of institutional experience among all of the named officials. The second official echoed that the move appeared to be an effort by the new administration to “clean house” among the State Department’s top leadership. Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Europe, was also not asked to stay on. “The department will not ...

Mass Departures At The State Department As Trump Era Begins

... diplomatic security announced his retirement, and the director of the office of overseas building operations resigned. There appears to be some question about whether the career diplomats leaving the State Department are leaving of their own accord, or are being purged by the incoming administration. While the Post reports that these were voluntary departures, other outlets including CNN are reporting that the senior managers were effectively fired. Whatever the case, the unexpected departure of such a large percentage of senior managers who had served under both Republican and Democratic administrations comes at a time when there is broad nervousness within the State Department about the direction of policy under the new president. Trump’s unpredictability and his tendency to make bombastic pronouncements about both ...