US State Department staff 'left with literally nothing to do' under Trump - Independent

[ffr]

Senior staff at the US State Department have been left with “literally nothing to do” under Donald Trump, it has been claimed.

Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said after giving a talk to an “unusually large audience” at the State Department, a member of the department’s senior executive service admitted the high attendance was because: “We’ve literally nothing else to do.”

The claim has fueled fears that Mr Trump is deliberately sidelining and running down the US equivalent of the Foreign Office, and may prefer increased defense spending and military might over soft power diplomacy.
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Link to tweet

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But the claim was made on the same day that it emerged that the State Department’s own spokesman had no idea that Mexico’s foreign minister was visiting Washington. This is despite it being established convention for foreign secretaries to be received by their State Department counterpart when visiting the US capital.

But at a press conference on Thursday, acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner found out from a journalist that Luis Videgaray was meeting with Jared Kushner (Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor), economic adviser Gary Cohn, and National Security Adviser General HR McMaster. - Independent

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. 3 people benefit from this, Putin, Tillerson and Trump

The rest of the world, not so much.

In fact, this is the most important step in making Russia the #1 power in the world and the USA an ally of Russia.

I said a long time ago American soldiers would be sent out to fight along side Putin's military in wars against what are now allies.

This is becoming clear now.

[Blanks]

2. Putin is getting even...

For the breakup of the former Soviet Union and it's alliances. The Soviet Bloc.

Ironically it was Ronald Reagan who said "Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall". The republicans have been worshipping at the feet of a man who wanted to tear down a wall, now they worship at the feet of a man who wants to build a similar wall. Here."