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Trump Remaking State Dept to Reflect “America First,” “DoS Officials Nervous”
The Hill via Pamela Geller ^ | July 15, 2017 | Pamela Geller

Posted on 07/17/2017 1:14:06 PM PDT by Oatka

The State Department is has long been compromised — State Department careerists work for the countries they are assigned to, not to America, and that’s the problem. The State Department is the problem. We need patriots and freedom lovers in state craft, not Muslim Brotherhood lackeys.

President Trump is attempting to overhaul the State Department and leave his “America First” stamp on the cumbersome bureaucracy — a move that is reportedly making former officials very nervous.

Trump’s war on the State Department

The Hill, July 2017:

President Trump is seeking to radically remodel the State Department in an unprecedented way, according to former officials from administrations of both political parties.

The administration’s efforts, which include a proposed budget cut of nearly 30 percent, a hiring freeze and a potential reshuffling of offices within the State Department, have left scores of positions unfilled, demoralizing the staff that remain.

Past GOP presidents have also sought to cut the State Department down to size, and even current employees have acknowledged bureaucratic problems at Foggy Bottom.

But some former officials describe Trump’s efforts as something unseen before — a war of sorts on the State Department that if carried out would leave it hobbling.

“My suspicion is that within the White House, particularly amongst the nationalist faction … that this seems to actually be a concerted effort to diminish the role of the State Department in U.S. foreign policy and hamper its abilities to pursue policies that would be considered overly globalist,” said Stewart Patrick, who served on the policy planning staff at the State Department in the George W. Bush administration.

“They also don’t see much use, frankly, in diplomacy,” said Patrick, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The White House, which has sought to promote an “America First” policy at home and abroad, isn’t worried about been perceived as taking unprecedented steps at the State Department.

"The president was elected to shake up Washington, not continue business as usual,” a White House official said. “He’s promised to spend more at home and less abroad, and his budget reflects that.”

At the same time, they reject the idea that diplomacy has been sidelined.

“The president has used diplomacy with China to bring unprecedented pressure on North Korea and its nuclear program. The president has used diplomacy to get NATO members to contribute more to defense,” the official said. “The idea that diplomacy has taken a backseat just does not square with reality.”

Trump is now on a trip to Paris, where he will attend the Bastille Day parade. He held a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.

The Trump administration’s efforts to remake the State Department include a March 13 executive order that set forth a branch-wide reorganization review that could result in a reshuffling or elimination of agencies and offices.

The administration is mulling a proposal that would relocate the State Department’s bureaus of Consular Affairs and Population, Refugees, and Migration to the Department of Homeland Security, according to CNN.

There is also the possibility of a merger between the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent agency that receives guidance from the secretary of State.

Trump’s budget proposes steep cuts to foreign aid, which has sparked concerns among lawmakers.

“My one sense is that the knives are out for USAID in the White House,” said Gordon Adams, a senior White House official for national security and foreign policy budgets during the Clinton administration.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: americafirst; draintheswamp; government; presidenttrump; second100days; sostillerson; statedepartment; statedept; swamp; trump; trumpstatedept; usaid
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To: bigbob

Did I ?

There’s a group photo. Lemme see


21 posted on 07/17/2017 2:51:04 PM PDT by stanne
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To: bigbob

Can’t find


22 posted on 07/17/2017 2:54:00 PM PDT by stanne
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To: Oatka

Fire anyone who looks nervous.


23 posted on 07/17/2017 3:01:56 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.)
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To: Oatka

[ “Nervous”? I hope they are terrified. ]

Amen.

Department of Swamp.


24 posted on 07/17/2017 3:31:43 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 21:36 KJV Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all...)
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: Oatka

Who knew nerveless communists could get nervous?


26 posted on 07/17/2017 4:10:49 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - JRRT)
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To: stanne

I can picture the one in question. It’s from when President-elect Trump made his first visit to the White House. Rows of faces among the colonnade ranging from angry to grim to grieving.


27 posted on 07/17/2017 6:02:28 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy... and call it progress")
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To: Oatka
"Nervous"? I hope they are terrified.

About time the pumper drove up to Foggy Bottom.



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The PFA Politician Pumper truck is equipped with a twenty four inch diameter suction hose mounted on a 48 foot swivel boom. The system is capable of extending to a full 300 feet reach with the addition of extension pumping suction hoses. The tank has a capacity of 69k lbs of political crap, 530 crooked politicians or 1,400 crooked lobbyists and Globalists bankers. Suction capacity of the Pump is up to 4,500 lbs. of vacuum so the system can reach through the hall ways and corridors of the Congressional Office buildings. The Caterpillar 535 Diesel engine can wizz this baby back and forth from the West Virginia State Penitentiary to the D.C. Capital area in less than an hour. The Tank body is a full lift dump body and the pumps can empty the tank in fifteen minutes making the unit ready to clean out more D.C. Crap a in short time.

The crew is fully equipped with US Constitutions, Constitutional Attorneys, and our Specially trained branch of the US Military Police Politician Arrest and Detain Squad, Trained, equipped, and designed specifically to DRAIN THE SWAMP.

Courtesy of Patriots For America, http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/forum/topics/it-is-time?commentId=2734278%3AComment%3A838246&xg_source=activity
28 posted on 07/17/2017 6:20:46 PM PDT by Cheerio (#44, The unknown President)
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To: Oatka
The State Department is has long been compromised — State Department careerists work for the countries they are assigned to, not to America, and that’s the problem. The State Department is the problem. We need patriots and freedom lovers in state craft, not Muslim Brotherhood lackeys.

The State Department has been populated by "One-Worlders" for a century, at least. At this point, it would be difficult to find any of their employees who REALLY represent the USA first! It will REALLY be a DEEP SWAMP to drain!!!

29 posted on 07/17/2017 6:44:04 PM PDT by ExSES (the "bottom-line")
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To: ConservativeDude

You want help? I’m retired DoS. If you lack a four year degree it may still be possible, but unlikely. I wrote Trump and never heard a peep from his team... to clear the swamp at Foggy Bottom.


30 posted on 07/17/2017 7:55:35 PM PDT by Jumper
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To: BenLurkin

The State Department is authorized manning of 15,000 foreign service officers/specialists - all US Citizens. The rest of the work force is augmented with a similar number of Fed Govt GS employees, and about 50,000 foreign service nationals that staff most overseas missions. D0S currently has just under 18,000 officers/specialists on its rolls which is “unauthorized by congress”. Maybe, but I cannot prove it, the overage has to do with personnel from another agency serving in undeclared and sometimes declared positions....


31 posted on 07/17/2017 7:59:31 PM PDT by Jumper
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To: dennisw

Cute, but those mentioned peoples only make up about 5-8% of the hiring in the past 9 years. Obama put gays at the top of the list for priority hires.


32 posted on 07/17/2017 8:01:34 PM PDT by Jumper
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To: ConservativeDude

I want to be one of the team to send out all the layoff notices...


33 posted on 07/17/2017 8:59:37 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Ancesthntr
“Diplomacy - the art of saying ‘Nice, Doggie!’ until you can find a rock.”

Heh.

I like the way Douglas Adams said it:

The history of every major civilization passes through three distinct and recognizable phases: survival, inquiry, and sophistication, also known as the "How", "Why", and "Where" phases. For example, the first phase may be characterized by the question, "How shall we eat?", the second by the question "Why do we eat?", and the third by the question, "Where shall we have lunch?"

The history of warfare is similarly divided, although here the phases are Retribution, Anticipation, and Diplomacy. Thus:

There was a time when the US State Dept. was an American institution. That time is almost beyond the reach of living memory.

34 posted on 07/17/2017 9:46:14 PM PDT by thulldud
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To: Oatka

The Snake Department has been nothing but a den of anti-American vipers since 1914, Woodrow Wilson made sure of that.
The misnomer of Foggy Bottom would be better renamed Communist Corruption Central.


35 posted on 07/18/2017 12:09:02 AM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Oatka
I worked with DOS personnel during my military career. Here is my 2 cents, for whatever its worth:

- "Diplomacy" has no real value in the context of what much of the State Dept practices. Example: it matters not that scores of diplomats are smiling at the elbow of "Palestinian" or Muslim liars, who tell them what they want to hear. The DOS at that point is nothing but an agency collaborating with Evil.

- The DOS believes it is the intellectual superior to every other agency, and the rest are grunts and apes. But when their world of chocolate rainbows and unicorns falls apart, they whine to the agencies like the Dept of Defense to come in an save them.

- Far too many State Dept employees lack the personal integrity or constitution to withstand the temptation to "go native" and serve the interests of the foreign nation to which they are assigned, rather than the United States of America.

- The agency is infested with actual Marxists, militant homosexuals, and hard core leftists, and there is nothing that can be done to rectify this situation except mass firings.


36 posted on 07/18/2017 3:04:23 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Oatka

Bye bye globalist DFs.


37 posted on 07/18/2017 4:28:43 AM PDT by Architect of Avalon
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To: Jumper

I’ve got a ton of degrees, and professional experience. It’s really that I can’t afford the pay cut with the family, and our situation in life....alas.


38 posted on 07/18/2017 6:33:37 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: Nicholas Sharpe

From the volume of comments, evidently a lot of people missed that one.

Duplicates are not a crime against humanity.


39 posted on 07/18/2017 8:27:36 AM PDT by Oatka
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To: ConservativeDude
I wish I could afford, both financially and life-stage ish, to apply.

I worked with a guy who was a co-pilot flying DC-3s during the Vietnam War - his passport was full of those accordion-like extension pages as he had been all over SE Asia.

Thinking that might come in handy, he got the idea to join the State Dept and went to their office to sign up. He filled out the form and gave it to the guy, who took one look and said "You don't follow directions very well, do you?"

He asked the guy what he meant and the guy says "The directions say to put an 'X' in the box and you put a checkmark." He was told to stuff it as the co-pilot didn't want to work in such a chickenshit outfit.

40 posted on 07/18/2017 8:37:14 AM PDT by Oatka
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