Trump hires campaign workers instead of farm experts at USDA
Hat tip, commenter Michael R at Joe.My.God: http://www.joemygod.com/2017/09/21/cnn-hires-former-us-attorney-preet-bharara/
Trumps appointees to USDA include a truck driver, country club cabana attendant and a scented-candle company owner
Trump hires campaign workers instead of farm experts at USDA
Truck driver, landscaper among political appointees at agency headquarters.
By JENNY HOPKINSON 09/21/2017 05:09 AM EDT
President Donald Trumps appointees to jobs at Agriculture Department headquarters include a long-haul truck driver, a country club cabana attendant and the owner of a scented-candle company. ... A POLITICO review of dozens of résumés from
political appointees to USDA shows the agency has been stocked with Trump campaign staff and volunteers who in many cases demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture. But of the 42 résumés POLITICO reviewed, 22 cited Trump campaign experience. And based on their résumés, some of those appointees appear to lack credentials, such as a college degree, required to qualify for higher government salaries.
Its typical for presidents to reward loyalists with jobs once a campaign is over. But whats different under Trump, sources familiar with the department's inner workings say, is the number of campaign staffers who have gotten positions and the jobs and salaries they have been hired for, despite not having solid agricultural credentials in certain cases. An inexperienced staff can lead to mistakes and sidetrack a presidents agenda, the sources say.
....
The truck driver, Nick Brusky, was hired this year at USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service an agency tasked with developing overseas markets for U.S. agricultural trade goods at one of the highest levels on the federal governments pay scale, a GS-12, earning $79,720 annually. Though that pay grade requires a masters degree or equivalent experience, its not clear from Bruskys résumé whether hes a college graduate. The document lists coursework in business management and political science at three universities from 2000 to 2013, but does not specify a graduation date.
Brusky served as a field representative for Trumps campaign in the battleground state of Ohio, beginning in November 2016, while driving for a trucking company in Hilliard, where he also was a county commissioner. Bruskys résumé shows he has no experience in cultivating international markets for trade goods, though he notes he has experience hauling and shipping agricultural commodities. It says he was twice elected to local office and was a legislative aide to an Ohio state representative from January 2009 until June 2012.