Trump Blasts Tillerson as Dumb and Lazy after Ex-Secretary of State's Criticism

[hatrack]

35. A good point - Pompeo's a truly contemptible, God-bothering clown . . .

He is, after all, the guy who test-marketed his new playpen as the Department of Swagger -

On Monday, coupled with the launch of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Instagram account, the State Department launched a campaign rebranding itself the “Department of Swagger.”

Replete with a composite photo of William Shakespeare, Gen. George S. Patton and Pompeo (because the Bard and Old Blood and Guts all had #swagger, apparently. Who knew?) and a PhotoShopped State Department seal now ringed by the words DEPARTMENT OF SWAGGER, the not-so-soft relaunch is the diplomatic version of New Coke. Put aside the fact that the department’s catchphrase sounds more like a product line of Old Spice deodorant than a label for a venerated institution that’s been led by American icons from Thomas Jefferson to Dean Acheson. Yes, it’s a long strange trip from “present at the creation” to “swagger.”

The new slogan is the latest indication that the administration is misdiagnosing State’s real problems: understaffing and under-resourcing to the point of wholesale dysfunction, the damage to America’s reputation in the world and a five-letter millstone dragging down our diplomats that’s spelled T-R-U-M-P. #Swagger misdiagnoses one problem—a hollowed out civilian force—and exacerbates another: managing the perception of arrogance and reckless unilateralism.

#Swagger sounds like a tagline on a Cialis commercial. To run the State Department, it takes a village—not Viagra. And right now at the State Department there is not even a small village. Forty out of 100 major management jobs are vacant, and five of six undersecretary positions are unfilled by Senate-confirmed appointees. We don’t even have nominees for ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan or Australia. Anything happening in those countries where you might want a chief of mission?

EDIT

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/13/state-department-mike-pompeo-swagger-donald-trump-219867