ON THE eve of a high-stakes trip to Asia in November 2017, President Donald Trump was asked by a Fox News anchor whether the State Department might be thwarting his America First agenda. Do you need more Trump nominees to push your vision through, the anchor asked? She was referring to scores of political positions that then remained (and still remain) unfilled at American diplomatic posts and agencies worldwide. Her question reflected a conventional Republican gripe, namely that the State Department is a cooing dovecote, full of apologists for Abroad. Mr Trump offered an unconventional answer. Lots of posts never need to be filled, he replied: “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.”
Mr Trump meant what he said, as he showed on March 13th after publicly sacking his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, in a tweet. His new chief diplomat will be Mike Pompeo, a hardline partisan and former member of Congress who as director of the CIA for...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2FFrQPK
EmoticonEmoticon