What's going on with the Executive Departments

[AmazonGrace]

In which the Mnuch is a bad ass and Auntie Maxine  is a badass

 

[fraurosena]

5 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

In which the Mnuch is a bad ass and Auntie Maxine  is a badass

 

Everyone in America should be chanting "Reclaiming my time" until this presiduncy ends.

[AmazonGrace]

On 27.7.2017 at 4:38 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

Sigh: "Kansas Gov. Brownback nominated as ambassador at large for religious freedom"

  Reveal hidden contents

President Donald Trump has formally nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as the State Department’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom.

Brownback has served as Kansas governor since 2011. His name has been in the mix for the post for weeks, before the White House announced his pick.

If confirmed, Brownback will serve effectively as the head of the Office of International Religous Freedom within the State Department. That office is charged with promoting religous freedom as a key objective of U.S. foreign policy, according to the State Department’s website. The office’s mission is to monitor “religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.”

Before serving as governor, Brownback represented the state in Congress — first as a representative in 1995 and 1996, then as a senator from 1996 to 2011. While in the Senate, in particular, Brownback focused on religious freedom and helped shape the International Religious Freedom Act, which passed in 1998.

n Kansas, Brownback has proved to be a deeply unpopular governor, even in a bedrock conservative state. A recent survey by Morning Consult found he was the second-least popular governor in America, with only 25 percent of those surveyed approving of of his job performance, and a 63 percent disapproval rating.

Brownback’s nomination comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried — and struggled — to eliminate an array of envoy and ambassador-at-large positions as he reorganizes the State Department. Tillerson has left some envoy positions vacant, without nominees, as a way to force the issue, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set Thursday to consider legislation that will give lawmakers a greater say over how special envoy jobs are filled.

The position was last held by Rabbi David Saperstein, former director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center.

Lovely, he screwed up Kansas, so he gets a plum post. Par for the freaking course in this sham administration.

Can I just say that it's absolutely ridiculous for this administration to even have a religious freedom ambassador.  The other day the president tweeted that people worship God in America. They banned Muslims, are going out of their way to placate a particular religious subgroup by letting their religious views discriminate against people who don't happen to share them and  want birth control or abortions or to go to bathroom or the army or have a gay wedding. 

[candygirl200413]

Obama had a reformed rabbi for his ambassador!

 

[AmazonGrace]

The Daily 202: Trump’s hardball tactics backfire as ‘skinny repeal’ goes down

By James Hohmann July 28 at 7:02 AM

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve

THE BIG IDEA: President Trump’s attacks on Republican senators are finally catching up with him, and Lisa Murkowski will not be bullied.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/07/28/daily-202-trump-s-hardball-tactics-backfire-as-skinny-repeal-goes-down/597a7cf630fb045fdaef0fd5/?utm_term=.3eb9a37a294b

The highlight: 

Quote

 

Later that day, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Murkowski and the state’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, to threaten that the Trump administration may change its position on several issues that affect the state to punish Murkowski, such as blocking energy exploration and plans to allow the construction of new roads. “The message was pretty clear,” Sullivan told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Nevertheless, Murkowski persisted. In fact, she took it one step further and demonstrated that she has more leverage over Zinke than he has over her. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski indefinitely postponed a nominations markup that the Interior Department badly wants.

This demonstrated the degree to which Zinke’s ham-handed phone call was political malpractice. The secretary, or whoever at the White House ordered him to make the calls, clearly doesn’t understand the awesome power that comes with being the chairman of a Senate committee. Only an amateur would threaten the person who has oversight over his agency! If she wants, Murkowski can make Zinke’s life so unbelievably miserable. He has no idea. (The Interior Department did not respond to requests for comment.)

A Murkowski spokeswoman denied that putting off the hearing was revenge or retaliation. Even if you believe that, and color us skeptical, postponing the hearing sent a crystal-clear message to the administration that she is not to be messed with. “I base my votes on what I believe is in Alaska's best interest,” Murkowski told reporters, with a smile.

Senators serve six-year terms, so they’re more insulated from pressure than representatives who are up every two years. Murkowski, who easily won a fourth term last year, is not up again until 2022, when Trump may no longer be president.

 

 

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, Flossie said:

Who knows, Ms. Hicks may just help Melania negotiate her divorce settlement and then step into the role of First Lady.  

I think this lady is a candidate for being the next Mrs. Trump:

"Dave and Lynn Aronberg Sign Amicable Divorce Settlement Putting an End to What Some Were Calling The Trump Divorce,” the [press] release said.

Lynn Aronberg, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, and Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County state attorney, had been married for less than two years, according to the Palm Beach Post.

In an unusual move, the release goes on to detail the personal differences that led to the end of the marriage.

The release said Lynn Aronberg, 36, is a “staunch Republican and supporter of President Trump” and felt “increasingly isolated in the marriage.” Her ex-husband, 46, is a Democrat.

The statement also included the financial terms of the settlement, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Lynn Aronberg, who runs her own media relations firm, reportedly will receive $100,000 worth of benefits in “exchange for her signature on the dotted line.” Her ex will also cover Lynn’s rent in a luxury Boca Raton condo until next summer along with a new BMW and $40,000 cash.

http://nypost.com/2017/07/27/socialite-couple-announces-trump-divorce-in-press-release/

If you click on through, there's pictures of the divorcing couple and one with her next to Donald Trump. She's a blonde with brown eyes just like Ivanka.

[onekidanddone]

10 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

If you click on through, there's pictures of the divorcing couple and one with her next to Donald Trump. She's a blonde with brown eyes just like Ivanka.

She is is type and isn't he way over due for a new wife? Normally the idea of a President getting divorced while in office would never be an option. Affairs sure, Kennedy, Johnson, FDR, but they weren't so public and out in the open. TT would make sure the entire world knew, humiliate Ivanka in public and make an entire spectacle because he is after all just a reality show media whore.

[47of74]

I see Rinced Penis is out at the White House!

Quote

President Donald Trump has selected Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus.

"I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American... and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration," Trump tweeted.

Priebus resigned privately Thursday, CNN has learned.

The move was announced just after Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington Friday.

 

[nvmbr02]

I don't have a link to a particular tweet or article but there is some chatter on twitter that Sessions may be moved over to become the new DHS secretary, thus clearing a way to appoint a new AG.

I wonder how the GOP would respond to that? They basically put a line in the sand with firing Sessions. So how do they respond if he just moves him to another position. 

This is pure speculation and I hope it does not happen but anything seems possible these days. 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

TT would make sure the entire world knew, humiliate Ivanka in public and make an entire spectacle because he is after all just a reality show media whore.

Did you mean Melania? Or do you think if he married a woman who resembled Ivanka, he would come right out and say that he chose his new wife because of her resemblance to Ivanka? That would be really embarrassing for Melania, Ivanka, and the new wife. 

[onekidanddone]

31 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Did you mean Melania? Or do you think if he married a woman who resembled Ivanka, he would come right out and say that he chose his new wife because of her resemblance to Ivanka? That would be really embarrassing for Melania, Ivanka, and the new wife. 

Yes I did mean Melania.  I get the two of them mixed up and sometimes. 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, nvmbr02 said:

I don't have a link to a particular tweet or article but there is some chatter on twitter that Sessions may be moved over to become the new DHS secretary, thus clearing a way to appoint a new AG.

I wonder how the GOP would respond to that? They basically put a line in the sand with firing Sessions. So how do they respond if he just moves him to another position. 

This is pure speculation and I hope it does not happen but anything seems possible these days. 

Can Sessions just refuse the appointment to DHS? If I were him that is what I would do

[candygirl200413]

So I have a sorority sister whose family friends with Jeh Johnson and I texted her asking he was handling it cause got damn! They legit have no acting secretary (last time I checked). I also laughed when they said Reince on the tarmac. I am though excited to hear if he ends up saying anything in regards to Trump since he didn't sign a NDA

[Bethella]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

I get the two of them mixed up and sometimes. 

Based on his comments and behavior, so does Trump. 

[GrumpyGran]

18 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I think this lady is a candidate for being the next Mrs. Trump:

"Dave and Lynn Aronberg Sign Amicable Divorce Settlement Putting an End to What Some Were Calling The Trump Divorce,” the [press] release said.

Lynn Aronberg, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, and Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County state attorney, had been married for less than two years, according to the Palm Beach Post.

In an unusual move, the release goes on to detail the personal differences that led to the end of the marriage.

The release said Lynn Aronberg, 36, is a “staunch Republican and supporter of President Trump” and felt “increasingly isolated in the marriage.” Her ex-husband, 46, is a Democrat.

The statement also included the financial terms of the settlement, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Lynn Aronberg, who runs her own media relations firm, reportedly will receive $100,000 worth of benefits in “exchange for her signature on the dotted line.” Her ex will also cover Lynn’s rent in a luxury Boca Raton condo until next summer along with a new BMW and $40,000 cash.

http://nypost.com/2017/07/27/socialite-couple-announces-trump-divorce-in-press-release/

If you click on through, there's pictures of the divorcing couple and one with her next to Donald Trump. She's a blonde with brown eyes just like Ivanka.

I saw this on TV. This poor guy is dodging a bullet. That woman is straight up crazy. Can you imagine being married to a woman who would plaster pictures of another man all over her facebook page, talk about him non-stop and then when you complain, ramp it up to irritate you more? Is the guy filthy rich? Because she didn't marry him for love.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is so sad: "The Desperation of Our Diplomats"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON — On the first Friday in May, Foreign Affairs Day, the staff gathers in the flag-bedecked C Street lobby of the State Department beside the memorial plaques for the 248 members of foreign affairs agencies who have lost their lives in the line of duty. A moment of silence is observed. As president of the American Foreign Service Association, Barbara Stephenson helps organize the annual event. This year, she was set to enter a delegates’ lounge to brief Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on its choreography before appearing alongside him. Instead, she told me, she was shoved out of the room.

Stephenson, a former ambassador to Panama, is not used to being manhandled at the State Department she has served with distinction for more than three decades. She had been inclined to give Tillerson the benefit of the doubt. Transitions between administrations are seldom smooth, and Tillerson is a Washington neophyte, unversed in diplomacy, an oilman trying to build a relationship with an erratic boss, President Trump.

Still, that shove captured the rudeness and remoteness that have undermined trust at Foggy Bottom. Stephenson began to understand the many distressed people coming to her “asking if their service is still valued.” The lack of communication between the secretary and the rest of the building has been deeply disturbing.

An exodus is underway. Those who have departed include Nancy McEldowney, the director of the Foreign Service Institute until she retired last month, who described to me “a toxic, troubled environment and organization”; Dana Shell Smith, the former ambassador to Qatar, who said what was most striking was the “complete and utter disdain for our expertise”; and Jake Walles, a former ambassador to Tunisia with some 35 years of experience. “There’s just a slow unraveling of the institution,” he told me.

The 8,000 Foreign Service officers are not sure how to defend American values under a president who has entertained the idea of torture, shown contempt for the Constitution, and never met an autocrat who failed to elicit his sympathy. Trump seems determined to hollow out the State Department in a strange act of national self-amputation.

The president signaled early on that military might, not diplomatic deftness, was his thing. Soft power was for the birds. This worldview (in essence no more than Trump’s gut) has been expressed in a proposed cut of about 30 percent in the State Department budget as military spending soars; a push to eliminate some 2,300 jobs; the vacancy of many senior posts, including 20 of the 22 assistant secretary positions requiring Senate confirmation; unfilled ambassadorships — roughly 30 percent of the total — from Paris to New Delhi; and the brushoff of the department’s input in interagency debate and in pivotal decisions, like withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. Days are now marked by resignations, unanswered messages and idled capacity.

The reasons for this dismemberment are unclear. Is it punishment for Hillary Clinton’s department? Or an extreme iteration of the “deconstruction of the administrative state” sought by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon? Does it reflect the priorities of Trump’s base or White House suspicion of the “deep state” or the president’s love of generals? All these factors appear to play a part. The upshot is a radical militarization of American foreign policy, and that’s dangerous.

Tillerson, who declined my request for an interview and whose spokesman never responded to calls and an email, insists he knows what he’s about. The former chief executive of Exxon Mobil is a methodical man. He’s an engineer; nuance is not his forte. “What’s the rush?” he’s been heard to say, apparently oblivious to the storm brewing. At Exxon, he occupied the so-called God Pod, known for its remoteness. At the State Department, his chief of staff is widely seen as having walled him off. His well-regarded deputy, John Sullivan, has initiated some much-needed outreach, but top leadership is still so depleted that communication stalls.

Olympian aloofness may work at an oil company. It won’t at a government agency whose leader is the nation’s face to the world.

The secretary has hired two consulting groups, Deloitte and Insigniam, to carry out a complete reorganization of the State Department next year. A survey went out to all employees; the process is very deliberate. Those empty name slots down the ghostly seventh-floor corridors may remain empty until mid-2018. There are certainly things to fix in a State Department whose mission has grown cluttered, with some two dozen special envoys and special advisers for everything from global youth to disability rights. But Tillerson has not explained to the department’s 75,000 employees what the revamp’s strategic aims are.

“The unanswered question with the cuts is: to what end?” McEldowney said. Another senior official, who has since left, pressed Tillerson for direction and was told: “It’s very simple. End terrorism. End radicalization. Deal with China.”

Besting Beijing, beating Islamist terrorism and boosting American business are clearly Trump priorities. As for the non-priorities, the possible elimination at the State Department of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, as well as questions over how the Office of Global Criminal Justice will be reconfigured, are indicative. Trump wants value for money. American values — freedom, human dignity and the rule of law — are another story.

On May 3, in his one town-hall meeting (if an event where he refused to take questions may be called that) with the department staff, Tillerson declared, “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests.”

This suggested Tillerson’s acquiescence to the valueless, transactional foreign policy emerging from the White House, a zero-sum game in which “Pay up” is the constant admonition to allies — and forget about any shining city on a hill. It’s hard to overstate how disturbing this is for many in the State Department. They know diplomacy is a tough business built around sometimes ugly compromise. But human rights are not some bargaining chip in the quest for the ultimate deal.

As Daniel Fried, another former ambassador who left this year, said upon his departure, “Values have power.”

Over the years, in war zones and outside them, I’ve known American Foreign Service officers for whom the word “noble” was not misplaced. They were driven by the determination to make a difference and extend the reach of human decency. Ambassador Chris Stevens, holed up in a Benghazi hotel, comes to mind, talking to me without illusions about the tiny chance for greater representation and freedom in Arab societies as dictatorships crumbled. For his values and commitment he paid with his life in 2012; his name is now on one of those plaques in the C Street lobby.

Asked about the situation at the State Department, Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, told me: “Our interests in the end rest on our values. I am concerned because the country seems to be veering away from values that are so foundational for us.” David Rank, the top American diplomat in China who quit last month over Trump’s decision to leave the Paris climate agreement, echoed that: “It’s disturbing to have an administration so nakedly uninterested in our values.”

Of course, Foreign Service officers are pros; they try to do their jobs even if they’re unsure whether to continue as before or await unforthcoming instructions. Six months into Trump’s administration, the world has not gone over a cliff. The institutions Trump has mocked, including NATO, have not collapsed. The “One China” policy and the Iran nuclear deal have not been abandoned. Indeed, on Iran, Tillerson has been a voice of restraint, curbing, for now, Trump’s bellicose instincts.

But as William Burns, a former deputy secretary of state and the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, put it to me, “Beneath the surface, there’s nothing at all that’s normal.” Hard power and soft power are complementary. Cut out one and American leverage is lost. Wendy Sherman, an under secretary of state in the Obama administration, said, “Whether witting or not, this is not just the disruption of the State Department, it’s the destruction, and the minimization of the role of diplomacy in our national security.”

There is no identifiable policy in Syria, where a reprisal missile strike for Bashar al-Assad’s renewed use of chemical weapons occurred in a vacuum and was later likened by a cabinet member to “after-dinner entertainment.” On Russia, Trump is effectively paralyzed. With both Iran and North Korea the possibility of war has grown. China is scarcely quaking in its shoes. A marginalized State Department leads to the farce of the White House’s Israel-Palestine peace initiative, uncoordinated with the diplomats who know the issues and are needed to marshal regional support. Alliances have frayed: Both Germany and Canada have concluded that Trump’s America is unreliable and, as Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, the time has come to “take our destiny into our own hands.”

In the Saudi-Qatar eruption last month, the extent of dysfunction was clear. Saudi Arabia, with clear support from Trump, orchestrated a blockade of Qatar, where the United States has its largest regional air base, accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism. Never mind that such accusations coming from the Saudis are pretty rich. That was on June 5. Four days later, Tillerson appealed for reconciliation. The blockade was “impairing U.S. and other international business activities.” Barely an hour later, Trump called Qatar a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

Throughout this time, Tillerson never contacted Smith, who was then still the Qatar ambassador, she told me. By contrast, she spoke four times to Defense Secretary James Mattis during the first week of the embargo; that communication line, at least, was open. Finally, this month, Tillerson spent a few days in the region trying to broker a deal between Doha and Riyadh, to no avail.

The Tillerson-Trump relationship remains a work in progress, with each blaming the other for the slow pace of State Department appointments. Tillerson is used to being in control; so is Trump; that’s complicated. White House attempts to sideline the secretary on Iran have fueled tensions, to the point that there is talk — denied by the State Department — of a Tillerson resignation, or “Rexit,” later this year. Tillerson said this week he’d stay “as long as the president lets me.”

Tillerson’s priority has been getting on good terms with his boss, but as he’s been managing up, frustration has grown down below. He needs to act fast if he is to salvage the situation. Talk of a “trust deficit” has translated into an atmosphere of growing unease in which people walk documents over to their recipients because they’re afraid emails will get leaked. The secretary needs to reach out to career officers and the American public. He needs to explain what all the cuts are supposed to achieve.

An American jewel is at stake, a place where honorable patriots take an oath to the Constitution — that is to say, to the rule of law, representative governance and the democratic processes that, with conspicuous failings but equally conspicuous bravery, United States diplomats have sought to extend across the world. They have done so in the belief that humanity, in the long run, will benefit from freedom. Since 1945, liberty has extended its reach. But now, at a time of growing great-power rivalry, a diminished State Department leaves a vacuum Russia and China will fill.

Tillerson needs to acknowledge that his first months in office have cast doubt on America’s fundamental mission, and make clear that soft power — diplomacy consistent with our values — is as critical a part of the American arsenal as the military.

Stephenson, the Foreign Service Association president, said: “People are struggling with how to honor their oath. The basic question is: How do you serve this great institution in what is one of the most trying times for our Republic?” She has hosted informal sessions with colleagues devoted to this question.

The answer is to speak truth to power. Trump may have besmirched the Republic with lies and attacks on the First Amendment and the judiciary; it cannot be easy for Foreign Service officers to walk into far-flung embassies and know their role is to represent America’s democracy to the world. Still, it is essential the State Department hold the line — for global security, for decency and for truth itself.

In her farewell speech on June 9, McEldowney, the director of the Foreign Service Institute — who had intended to stay seven more years but then found the situation untenable — said: “I learned that loyalty demands honest disagreement. I learned that our duty compels us to disobey an instruction that is legally or morally wrong. And I learned that we swear an oath not to a king or even a president, but to a constitution, a system of laws that Lincoln described as the only true sovereign of a free people.”

My friend Chris Stevens, who did not die in Libya for a business deal, would have approved of those words.

I hadn't even thought about the gutting of the State Department as retaliation for being "Hillary's department". Oh, and I love the town hall where Tilly wouldn't take questions. Par for the course.

[GrumpyGran]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

This is so sad: "The Desperation of Our Diplomats"

  Hide contents

WASHINGTON — On the first Friday in May, Foreign Affairs Day, the staff gathers in the flag-bedecked C Street lobby of the State Department beside the memorial plaques for the 248 members of foreign affairs agencies who have lost their lives in the line of duty. A moment of silence is observed. As president of the American Foreign Service Association, Barbara Stephenson helps organize the annual event. This year, she was set to enter a delegates’ lounge to brief Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on its choreography before appearing alongside him. Instead, she told me, she was shoved out of the room.

Stephenson, a former ambassador to Panama, is not used to being manhandled at the State Department she has served with distinction for more than three decades. She had been inclined to give Tillerson the benefit of the doubt. Transitions between administrations are seldom smooth, and Tillerson is a Washington neophyte, unversed in diplomacy, an oilman trying to build a relationship with an erratic boss, President Trump.

Still, that shove captured the rudeness and remoteness that have undermined trust at Foggy Bottom. Stephenson began to understand the many distressed people coming to her “asking if their service is still valued.” The lack of communication between the secretary and the rest of the building has been deeply disturbing.

An exodus is underway. Those who have departed include Nancy McEldowney, the director of the Foreign Service Institute until she retired last month, who described to me “a toxic, troubled environment and organization”; Dana Shell Smith, the former ambassador to Qatar, who said what was most striking was the “complete and utter disdain for our expertise”; and Jake Walles, a former ambassador to Tunisia with some 35 years of experience. “There’s just a slow unraveling of the institution,” he told me.

The 8,000 Foreign Service officers are not sure how to defend American values under a president who has entertained the idea of torture, shown contempt for the Constitution, and never met an autocrat who failed to elicit his sympathy. Trump seems determined to hollow out the State Department in a strange act of national self-amputation.

The president signaled early on that military might, not diplomatic deftness, was his thing. Soft power was for the birds. This worldview (in essence no more than Trump’s gut) has been expressed in a proposed cut of about 30 percent in the State Department budget as military spending soars; a push to eliminate some 2,300 jobs; the vacancy of many senior posts, including 20 of the 22 assistant secretary positions requiring Senate confirmation; unfilled ambassadorships — roughly 30 percent of the total — from Paris to New Delhi; and the brushoff of the department’s input in interagency debate and in pivotal decisions, like withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. Days are now marked by resignations, unanswered messages and idled capacity.

The reasons for this dismemberment are unclear. Is it punishment for Hillary Clinton’s department? Or an extreme iteration of the “deconstruction of the administrative state” sought by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon? Does it reflect the priorities of Trump’s base or White House suspicion of the “deep state” or the president’s love of generals? All these factors appear to play a part. The upshot is a radical militarization of American foreign policy, and that’s dangerous.

Tillerson, who declined my request for an interview and whose spokesman never responded to calls and an email, insists he knows what he’s about. The former chief executive of Exxon Mobil is a methodical man. He’s an engineer; nuance is not his forte. “What’s the rush?” he’s been heard to say, apparently oblivious to the storm brewing. At Exxon, he occupied the so-called God Pod, known for its remoteness. At the State Department, his chief of staff is widely seen as having walled him off. His well-regarded deputy, John Sullivan, has initiated some much-needed outreach, but top leadership is still so depleted that communication stalls.

Olympian aloofness may work at an oil company. It won’t at a government agency whose leader is the nation’s face to the world.

The secretary has hired two consulting groups, Deloitte and Insigniam, to carry out a complete reorganization of the State Department next year. A survey went out to all employees; the process is very deliberate. Those empty name slots down the ghostly seventh-floor corridors may remain empty until mid-2018. There are certainly things to fix in a State Department whose mission has grown cluttered, with some two dozen special envoys and special advisers for everything from global youth to disability rights. But Tillerson has not explained to the department’s 75,000 employees what the revamp’s strategic aims are.

“The unanswered question with the cuts is: to what end?” McEldowney said. Another senior official, who has since left, pressed Tillerson for direction and was told: “It’s very simple. End terrorism. End radicalization. Deal with China.”

Besting Beijing, beating Islamist terrorism and boosting American business are clearly Trump priorities. As for the non-priorities, the possible elimination at the State Department of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, as well as questions over how the Office of Global Criminal Justice will be reconfigured, are indicative. Trump wants value for money. American values — freedom, human dignity and the rule of law — are another story.

On May 3, in his one town-hall meeting (if an event where he refused to take questions may be called that) with the department staff, Tillerson declared, “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests.”

This suggested Tillerson’s acquiescence to the valueless, transactional foreign policy emerging from the White House, a zero-sum game in which “Pay up” is the constant admonition to allies — and forget about any shining city on a hill. It’s hard to overstate how disturbing this is for many in the State Department. They know diplomacy is a tough business built around sometimes ugly compromise. But human rights are not some bargaining chip in the quest for the ultimate deal.

As Daniel Fried, another former ambassador who left this year, said upon his departure, “Values have power.”

Over the years, in war zones and outside them, I’ve known American Foreign Service officers for whom the word “noble” was not misplaced. They were driven by the determination to make a difference and extend the reach of human decency. Ambassador Chris Stevens, holed up in a Benghazi hotel, comes to mind, talking to me without illusions about the tiny chance for greater representation and freedom in Arab societies as dictatorships crumbled. For his values and commitment he paid with his life in 2012; his name is now on one of those plaques in the C Street lobby.

Asked about the situation at the State Department, Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, told me: “Our interests in the end rest on our values. I am concerned because the country seems to be veering away from values that are so foundational for us.” David Rank, the top American diplomat in China who quit last month over Trump’s decision to leave the Paris climate agreement, echoed that: “It’s disturbing to have an administration so nakedly uninterested in our values.”

Of course, Foreign Service officers are pros; they try to do their jobs even if they’re unsure whether to continue as before or await unforthcoming instructions. Six months into Trump’s administration, the world has not gone over a cliff. The institutions Trump has mocked, including NATO, have not collapsed. The “One China” policy and the Iran nuclear deal have not been abandoned. Indeed, on Iran, Tillerson has been a voice of restraint, curbing, for now, Trump’s bellicose instincts.

But as William Burns, a former deputy secretary of state and the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, put it to me, “Beneath the surface, there’s nothing at all that’s normal.” Hard power and soft power are complementary. Cut out one and American leverage is lost. Wendy Sherman, an under secretary of state in the Obama administration, said, “Whether witting or not, this is not just the disruption of the State Department, it’s the destruction, and the minimization of the role of diplomacy in our national security.”

There is no identifiable policy in Syria, where a reprisal missile strike for Bashar al-Assad’s renewed use of chemical weapons occurred in a vacuum and was later likened by a cabinet member to “after-dinner entertainment.” On Russia, Trump is effectively paralyzed. With both Iran and North Korea the possibility of war has grown. China is scarcely quaking in its shoes. A marginalized State Department leads to the farce of the White House’s Israel-Palestine peace initiative, uncoordinated with the diplomats who know the issues and are needed to marshal regional support. Alliances have frayed: Both Germany and Canada have concluded that Trump’s America is unreliable and, as Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, the time has come to “take our destiny into our own hands.”

In the Saudi-Qatar eruption last month, the extent of dysfunction was clear. Saudi Arabia, with clear support from Trump, orchestrated a blockade of Qatar, where the United States has its largest regional air base, accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism. Never mind that such accusations coming from the Saudis are pretty rich. That was on June 5. Four days later, Tillerson appealed for reconciliation. The blockade was “impairing U.S. and other international business activities.” Barely an hour later, Trump called Qatar a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

Throughout this time, Tillerson never contacted Smith, who was then still the Qatar ambassador, she told me. By contrast, she spoke four times to Defense Secretary James Mattis during the first week of the embargo; that communication line, at least, was open. Finally, this month, Tillerson spent a few days in the region trying to broker a deal between Doha and Riyadh, to no avail.

The Tillerson-Trump relationship remains a work in progress, with each blaming the other for the slow pace of State Department appointments. Tillerson is used to being in control; so is Trump; that’s complicated. White House attempts to sideline the secretary on Iran have fueled tensions, to the point that there is talk — denied by the State Department — of a Tillerson resignation, or “Rexit,” later this year. Tillerson said this week he’d stay “as long as the president lets me.”

Tillerson’s priority has been getting on good terms with his boss, but as he’s been managing up, frustration has grown down below. He needs to act fast if he is to salvage the situation. Talk of a “trust deficit” has translated into an atmosphere of growing unease in which people walk documents over to their recipients because they’re afraid emails will get leaked. The secretary needs to reach out to career officers and the American public. He needs to explain what all the cuts are supposed to achieve.

An American jewel is at stake, a place where honorable patriots take an oath to the Constitution — that is to say, to the rule of law, representative governance and the democratic processes that, with conspicuous failings but equally conspicuous bravery, United States diplomats have sought to extend across the world. They have done so in the belief that humanity, in the long run, will benefit from freedom. Since 1945, liberty has extended its reach. But now, at a time of growing great-power rivalry, a diminished State Department leaves a vacuum Russia and China will fill.

Tillerson needs to acknowledge that his first months in office have cast doubt on America’s fundamental mission, and make clear that soft power — diplomacy consistent with our values — is as critical a part of the American arsenal as the military.

Stephenson, the Foreign Service Association president, said: “People are struggling with how to honor their oath. The basic question is: How do you serve this great institution in what is one of the most trying times for our Republic?” She has hosted informal sessions with colleagues devoted to this question.

The answer is to speak truth to power. Trump may have besmirched the Republic with lies and attacks on the First Amendment and the judiciary; it cannot be easy for Foreign Service officers to walk into far-flung embassies and know their role is to represent America’s democracy to the world. Still, it is essential the State Department hold the line — for global security, for decency and for truth itself.

In her farewell speech on June 9, McEldowney, the director of the Foreign Service Institute — who had intended to stay seven more years but then found the situation untenable — said: “I learned that loyalty demands honest disagreement. I learned that our duty compels us to disobey an instruction that is legally or morally wrong. And I learned that we swear an oath not to a king or even a president, but to a constitution, a system of laws that Lincoln described as the only true sovereign of a free people.”

My friend Chris Stevens, who did not die in Libya for a business deal, would have approved of those words.

I hadn't even thought about the gutting of the State Department as retaliation for being "Hillary's department". Oh, and I love the town hall where Tilly wouldn't take questions. Par for the course.

This is absolutely FUBAR and incredibly dangerous. I think I'd rather Tillerson keep his mouth shut. Letting the world know how screwed up our State Department is would encourage more Benghazis. Tillerson will go sooner rather than later, he doesn't need to put up with this shit. What worries me is what would happen then. Will we all be saying "He went to Jared?"

[AmazonGrace]

 

[candygirl200413]

Report: Trump Cabinet members attend weekly Bible study

Quote

Many of President Trump's Cabinet members gather at a weekly session to study the Bible, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) reported Monday.

Ralph Drollinger, the founder of Capitol Ministries, says he leads a weekly Bible study with Cabinet members such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

"It's the best Bible study that I've ever taught in my life. They are so teachable. They're so noble. They're so learned," Drollinger told CBN.

Vice President Pence, who is a sponsor of the faith sessions, reportedly joins the group when his schedule allows. 

"Mike Pence has uncompromising biblical tenacity and he has a loving tone about him that's not just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal," Drollinger said in part. "And then fourthly, he brings real value to the head of the nation."  

Drollinger praised Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who he said also attends the gathering, for quickly turning around and using the lessons of the weekly session.

"He'll go out the same day I teach him something and I'll see him do it on camera and I just think, 'Wow, these guys are faithful, available and teachable and they're at Bible study every week they're in town,' " Drollinger told CBN, referring to Sessions.

Drollinger, a former NBA player, founded his organization with the intent of spreading the Christian faith to lawmakers across the U.S. He has started similar Bible groups in dozens of state capitols as well as weekly studies in both chambers of Congress. 

A weekly Bible study group with Cabinet members, Drollinger said, is likely the first of its kind in almost 100 years.

Trump, who is invited to attend, receives a copy of the scripture teaching each week, according to CBN, which has interviewed the president.

I read Hillary also did a bible study in her 8 years at first lady but not sure with who. Regardless, his entire cabinet as well as himself sold their souls to the devil so as a Christian I'm disgusted how they're trying to cover themselves with these bullshit classes.

[Childless]

6 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

Report: Trump Cabinet members attend weekly Bible study

I read Hillary also did a bible study in her 8 years at first lady but not sure with who. Regardless, his entire cabinet as well as himself sold their souls to the devil so as a Christian I'm disgusted how they're trying to cover themselves with these bullshit classes.

I highly doubt it's the first WH Bible study in 100 years.  That's a load of crap.  Furthermore, the president can't attend because he would burst into flames.

[GreyhoundFan]

I hope it does bite him. And that the wound gets infected. "The Energy 202: How Pruitt's hustle to deregulate the EPA may bite him"

Spoiler

In his aggressive pursuit of rolling back Obama administration regulations, President Trump's top environmental official may be bumping up against his legal limits.

Late Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce an Obama administration rule limiting the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that can be emitted from new or modified oil and gas wells.

The 9-to-2 decision comes after an earlier ruling in July striking down as illegal a 90-day delay in the implementation of the decision compelling oil and gas well operators to plug methane leaks. Industry groups argued that the federal rules were unnecessary as they duplicated state efforts to rein in emissions. 

Where much of the rest of the Trump agenda on health care or a tax rewrite flounders, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is plugging away at repealing Obama-era regulations and helping bolster the president's claim that he is keeping his campaign promise to deregulate the fossil-fuel sector. With both chambers of Congress led by the GOP, environmentalists opposed to that agenda have turned to the courts to block Trump's policy.

The methane rulings may just be the start of the legal pendulum swinging back to their side. Most of the headlines the EPA has generated during Trump's six months in office boil down to this: The EPA will begin the lengthy review process of undoing such-and-such rule.

For example, in February, Trump surrounded himself with cameras and lawmakers to sign an executive order targeting a clean-water rule that greatly expanded the number of waterways that fall under federal protection.

Though Pruitt has publicly indicated to Congress that the EPA would “provide clarity” by “withdrawing” the clean-water rule, the agency only took its first step in a dual-prong process by officially rescinding the decision last week. And even so, the EPA must take the time to address the thorny legal question the Obama rule sought to address. Those include what waterways fall under the jurisdiction of the ambiguously worded Clean Water Act. Litigants have tried and failed to sort out that question in the courts for years.

Here's the problem: Pruitt's hustle may be just now coming back to bite him in his quest to cut down on red tape he thinks is hurting the energy sector -- thereby making it harder for him to implement the Trump environmental agenda. The Administrative Procedure Act requires the EPA to seek public comment and state its justification before suspending a rule as it is being considered for repeal.  And there are court challenges that could get in the way if the administration isn't careful.

Bethany A. Davis Noll, an attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity, and Richard L. Revesz, a New York University law professor, argue that the EPA is cutting corners in striking down Obama administration rules.

The lawyers argue that Pruitt has suspended rules without taking actions required beforehand.

"Pruitt’s willingness to play fast and loose has helped his anti-regulatory reputation soar," the two lawyers write in Slate. "But the brazen deficiencies in the agency’s work exposing the hollowness of Pruitt’s 'rule of law' rhetoric should give Pruitt’s supporters pause. Once the judicial challenges run their course, Pruitt may be striking out a lot more."

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Because, of course: "State Department considers scrubbing democracy promotion from its mission"

Spoiler

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ordered his department to redefine its mission and issue a new statement of purpose to the world. The draft statements under review right now are similar to the old mission statement, except for one thing — any mention of promoting democracy is being eliminated.

According to an internal email that went out Friday, which I obtained, the State Department’s Executive Steering Committee convened a meeting of leaders to draft new statements on the department’s purpose, mission and ambition, as part of the overall reorganization of the State Department and USAID. (The draft statements were being circulated for comment Friday and could change before being finalized.)

The State Department’s draft statement on its purpose is: “We promote the security, prosperity and interests of the American people globally.”

The State Department’s draft statement on its mission is: “Lead America’s foreign policy through global advocacy, action and assistance to shape a safer, more prosperous world.”

The State Department’s draft statement on its ambition is: “The American people thrive in a peaceful and interconnected world that is free, resilient and prosperous.”

Compare that to the State Department Mission Statement that is currently on the books, as laid out in the department’s fiscal year 2016 financial report:

“The Department’s mission is to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere. This mission is shared with the USAID, ensuring we have a common path forward in partnership as we invest in the shared security and prosperity that will ultimately better prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow.”

Former senior State Department officials from both parties told me that eliminating “just” and “democratic” from the State Department’s list of desired outcomes is neither accidental nor inconsequential.

“The only significant difference is the deletion of justice and democracy,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy during the George W. Bush administration. “We used to want a just and democratic word, and now apparently we don’t.”

The mission statement is important because it sends a signal about American priorities and intentions to foreign governments and people around the world, said Abrams, who was considered by Tillerson for the job of deputy secretary of state but rejected by President Trump.

“That change is a serious mistake that ought to be corrected,” he said. “If not, the message being sent will be a great comfort to every dictator in the world.”

Tom Malinowski, who served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor for the Obama administration, said the new proposed mission statement brings U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment with that of some of America’s chief adversaries, including Russia.

“It’s a worldview similar to that of Putin, who also thinks that great powers should focus exclusively on self protection and enrichment, rather than promoting democracy,” he said. “By removing all reference to universal values and the common good it removes any reason for people outside the United States to support our foreign-policy. That said, I appreciate the honesty with which Tillerson projects his cynicism.”

Malinowski also predicted that the change, if it becomes permanent, would sow confusion throughout the ranks of the State Department’s civil and foreign service because hundreds of State Department officials work on congressionally funded programs every day that are meant to promote democracy and justice abroad.

Adding to the confusion, Trump occasionally trumpets democracy promotion, for example when it comes to Cuba or Venezuela. But in his inauguration speech, Trump made clear that democracy promotion would not be a feature of his foreign policy.

“We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow,” Trump said.

The changes in the State Department mission statement may not seem very significant viewed in isolation. But Tillerson has made several statements and decisions that indicate he plans to lower the priority of democracy and human rights in U.S. foreign policy.

In his first speech to his State Department employees, he said promoting American values “creates obstacles” to pursuing America’s national security interests. In March, he broke tradition by declining to appear personally to unveil the State Department’s annual human rights report.

In another example, the State Department will soon eliminate the www.humanrights.gov website and move its content to an alternative web address, www.state.gov/j/drl, a State Department official told me.

“It’s just so gratuitous. What efficiency is achieved or money is saved by taking something that is prominent on the Internet and hiding it?” said Malinowski. “The consequence is that it’s the 9,456th signal sent by the administration that they don’t care about promoting American values.”

The State Department declined to comment.

This administration is beyond ridiculous.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The most dangerous man in Washington"

Spoiler

Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most dangerous White House official of them all?

The Mooch may be out of the running, but there’s still a lot of competition. 

It’s not the guy in charge of our nuclear arsenal, who may or may not have realized that was the core of his job description before accepting the post (Rick Perry).

Nor is it the woman meeting with men’s rights advocates (Betsy DeVos). 

And it’s not the guy who keeps adding financial assets and meetings with Russian officials to his federal disclosure forms (Jared Kushner). 

It’s neither of the guys rolling back climate change regulations and sidelining scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department (Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, respectively).

It’s not the guy who worries that homeless shelters are too comfortable (Ben Carson). Not the guy arguing to dismantle lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (Jeff Sessions). Not the mastermind of the Bowling Green Massacre (Kellyanne Conway). 

Strangely enough, it’s not the fellow who built a media empire by playing footsie with the alt-right (Stephen K. Bannon). Nor is it even the guy whom a Nazi-allied Austrian nationalist group claims as a sworn member (Sebastian Gorka).

To be sure, all these aides and bureaucrats are doing damage. They are degrading norms, enacting bad policy and putting our country and planet at grave risk. 

But right now the “most dangerous” title belongs — aside from the tweeter in chief, of course — to someone in a much less sexy job, with a much less scandalous background. 

It’s Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget.  

In terms of both immensity and immediacy, the threat Mulvaney presents is far greater than any of the slow-motion train wrecks happening elsewhere in the administration. That’s because he seems hell-bent on wreaking a global crisis within the next two months. 

Not a century from now. Not a decade from now. In two months.  

That’s when the government will run out of money needed to pay bills Congress has already incurred, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, if Congress does not act to raise the debt limit. 

What would follow? Just a constitutional, political and global financial crisis.

Arguably, the U.S. government would be in violation of the 14th Amendment (“The validity of the public debt of the United States . . . shall not be questioned”). The government’s ability to continue paying Social Security checks, interest on the debt and other basic obligations would likewise be at risk. 

Most important, this would irrevocably destroy the United States’ sterling reputation as a borrower. 

U.S. debt is considered the safest of safe assets, and as such, Treasury securities are the benchmark of the global financial system. Causing creditors to question whether they’ll receive full and timely payments would trigger panic in markets throughout the world. 

Technically, we already hit the debt ceiling in March. In the months since, Treasury has engaged in extraordinary accounting measures to avoid outright default. But come early fall, those measures will be exhausted. The United States will become a deadbeat. 

The debt ceiling is a product of the misguided belief that limiting the official borrowing capacity of the government would force legislators into frugality. In reality, it has done nothing to curb financial profligacy. Its chief effect is to periodically offer some political faction — sometimes the minority party, sometimes the nuttier fringe of the majority party — the power to take a very valuable hostage. 

Mnuchin has urged Congress to pass a debt-limit hike with no strings attached. The government would thereby dodge default with minimal drama and without spooking markets. 

But Mulvaney has other plans. 

During his six years in Congress, he voted against raising the debt limit four times. One might hope he was merely posturing, since he was able to cast such votes with the knowledge that his colleagues would ultimately pass the bills.

Unfortunately, as OMB director, Mulvaney has continued to be breathtakingly irresponsible with the creditworthiness of the United States. 

In May, he publicly contradicted Mnuchin by arguing that a debt-ceiling increase should be coupled with divisive spending cuts, which would inevitably complicate an already politically fraught process. 

And on Sunday, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Congress must not pass any legislation — not even a debt-ceiling hike — until the notoriously impossible Obamacare repeal is done. President Trump echoed this thinking on Twitter as well. 

No surprise, given that the self-proclaimed King of Debt has also been cavalier about the full faith and credit of the United States. 

So long as Mulvaney still has the president’s ear, we’re all living dangerously.

Sobering, but true.

[GrumpyGran]

10 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

Report: Trump Cabinet members attend weekly Bible study

I read Hillary also did a bible study in her 8 years at first lady but not sure with who. Regardless, his entire cabinet as well as himself sold their souls to the devil so as a Christian I'm disgusted how they're trying to cover themselves with these bullshit classes.

They are the bestest Christians ever! Because they're famous. And powerful. And rich! Really rich! Great connections for me! Jesus said so in Amway 12:34.

[GreyhoundFan]

From GQ: "Ryan Zinke, Trump's Cowboy Enforcer, Is Ready for His Closeup"

Spoiler

He raised eyebrows for his threats against Senator Lisa Murkowski after she voted to block the Republican health care bill; he raised ire for slashing Obama-era environmental protections. And all the while, Ryan Zinke—a former Navy SEAL Commander tapped by Trump as Secretary of the Interior—has been raising his own profile. Is there room for another star in Trump’s Washington?

It was almost parody, the way he rolled in, Ryan Zinke's six-foot-four frame hunched in the bucket seat of a black SUV. The tires sent up dust as they stopped, and out stepped the secretary of the interior, his gold "MONTANA" belt buckle glinting in the sun. He palmed his cowboy hat onto his head slowly, deliberately, and beheld the horse before him. "Hello, Tonto," Zinke said, his voice as deep as you might expect from a former SEAL commander who fancies himself a kind of latter-day Teddy Roosevelt. Tonto blinked.

Though Zinke may have looked the part of the Western cowboy, he is in fact a big player in Donald Trump's Washington. That much was made clear last week when—despite the many chores that keep him busy at the Interior Department—Zinke decided he wanted a piece of the healthcare debate, too. He rang up Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, urging her to fall in line on the White House-backed effort to repeal Obamacare, and threatening to compromise energy projects important to her state if she didn't. The move no doubt endeared him to Trump, but it sparked the ire of House Democrats, who now want the incident investigated. ("The call was professional and the media stories are totally sensationalized," Zinke's spokeswoman tells me.)

Moments like these can make Trump’s D.C. feel like a stressful place—a hive of murky gamesmanship and scrambled moral calculating. And a horse can help soothe some of that. I found Zinke and his mount, that Saturday morning not long ago, near the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, where the U.S. Park Police houses its horses. As interior secretary, Zinke administers almost all of America's public lands, including Washington's various monuments and the National Mall, where he'd invited me to join him for a ride. (He's also the boss of the Park Police officers, which means that when he refuses to wear a helmet, they have no choice but to indulge him.) So we set off down the Mall, the secretary wearing a blue checked shirt and white-stitched cowboy boots, like a wannabe Wayne for our hero-less times.

The 55-year-old likes to ride here every few weeks, to "get out in the field, like a commander should," as he puts it. It's also a fine way for a politician like him to glad-hand with sightseers—though none has any idea who Ryan Zinke is.

"You must be here from Texas!" one man shouts to the secretary.

True, the lineage of interior secretaries isn't exactly the stuff of Schoolhouse Rock songs, and even among members of the cabinet, he's a relatively unfamous face: Zinke had only been in Congress for a couple of years when Trump plucked him out of seeming obscurity to run Interior. But if Zinke's track record is any indication, he has every intention of leveraging his new post on Team Trump into something much bigger. And while hitching one's political future to this particular administration could be seen as something of a risky move, Zinke's daring has often been rewarded.

Back in 2015, while he was serving as Montana's sole congressman, he gamely offered to become the Speaker of the House, should Paul Ryan turn down the gig. At that point, Zinke had been in Washington all of about ten months. Roughly six months later, when he announced his endorsement of Donald Trump, he threw in that he'd be "honored to be part of the cabinet" but also, as a mere suggestion, that he'd be similarly "honored to be the vice president."

It's perhaps fitting that a guy with such little political experience and such big political dreams would find his way to Trump's radar. After the election, Zinke was hosting his office Christmas party in Washington when he got the call from Reince Priebus, the then-presumptive (now-former) chief of staff. Mr. Trump, Priebus told Zinke, wanted to see him in New York.

Rumors buzzed that he'd been shortlisted for the job atop the Interior Department, but when Zinke and his wife, Lola, passed through the gilded doors of Trump Tower, he actually had no clue what position he was interviewing for—Priebus had never said definitively. And by the end of a rambling conversation with the president-elect, Zinke still wasn't entirely sure.

"The conversation went a hundred seconds. It went from women in combat to Syria policy to the Chinese to energy independence, a little about public lands, a little about hunting access," Zinke tells me. "Most of the conversation was not really Interior, per se." At one point, Trump proposed the Veterans Affairs post, to which Zinke quipped, "I don't think you hate me that much."

He was flying back to Montana when Mike Pence called him. "The vice president says, 'Well, congratulations!'" Zinke recalls, sharing the moment he was asked to join the Trump Cabinet, "and I asked him, 'What job?'"

It was so very Trump, the slapdash interview and offer. But it revealed just as much about Zinke, too, and his flexible ambitions. The story made the rounds within the department, worrying some career staffers that their incoming boss had no real attachment to the job. But even those left over from the Obama administration were reassured during Zinke's confirmation hearing. He was committed to conservation, he said; he was adamantly opposed to the GOP-backed idea of transferring federal lands to the states and was someone who, unlike Trump, did not believe that climate change was a "hoax." Later, in a much-praised speech to staffers, Zinke even pledged to protect the department from rumblings of budget cuts coming from the White House.

But four months in, many of those same staffers fear that Zinke has taken to spouting the Trump line, shifting the department's focus toward resource extraction—offshore drilling, for example—and away from the conservation principles they expected. And he's failed to stave off White House budget slashers who've proposed cutting funding by 12 percent. (The House would later approve a 7 percent cut.) "It's like he got one speech," says one recently departed Interior staffer, "and then he was reined in."

The members of Trump's cabinet face plenty of annoyances that are not new. Cabinet secretaries throughout time have felt marginalized by the West Wing, which is always greedy to run the agencies from the White House. But in this administration, leaders like Zinke face the new and Trump-centric frustration of dealing with a White House that often recklessly undercuts or contradicts its stated positions, sometimes in the same day they're announced. In early June, for instance, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a scrum of reporters in the Treaty Room that he'd urged Saudi Arabia to ease its blockade of Qatar, to help the U.S. combat ISIS. Mere hours later, Trump urged the Saudis to instead sever their Qatari ties. Two weeks before, Defense Secretary James Mattis watched slack-jawed as Trump went off-script during a speech to enrage NATO allies.

It makes for a whim-driven administration that could complicate the path forward for someone like Zinke, who wants to emerge from this circus as more than merely unscathed. He wants to be a political star in his own right.

Thirty minutes into our ride, after snaking through another throng of tourists, we approach the Washington Monument—that stone memorial to the original military man turned president—and Zinke takes stock of these still-early days of the Trump administration. "The president is the best boss I've ever had," Zinke tells me, "but there's a lot of distractions and chatter." He tugs on his reins to pause for a moment and consider the structure, the city's tallest by edict. "You're just always looking for ways to stay above that."

To the extent that Ryan Zinke has made himself familiar so far to Americans, it's likely because of a moment last month, during the first full meeting of the cabinet. With reporters and cameramen craning their necks for a better view, the president asked each agency head to introduce themselves to the room. What should have been a breezy name-check devolved, however, into what can only be described as a bizarre Trump veneration session, in which his cabinet secretaries and his top aides waxed profusely about the "blessing"—as Priebus so pitifully put it—of working for him. Trump looked on, beaming.

Zinke managed to come off better than many of the others. Less sycophantic, at least. "Mr. President," he said, "as your SEAL on your staff…it's an honor to be your steward of our public lands and the generator of energy dominance. I am deeply honored."

The episode revealed quite a bit about how Trump views himself in relation to his cabinet—that is, the star amid a class of supporting characters who've realized that the gateway to Trump's favor, perhaps, is flattery.

Reflecting on the oddity of that meeting and the news it generated, Zinke, typically well-spoken with a tendency to filibuster, stammers a bit. "Uh, you know, it was impromptu," he says. "Each member was free to…to…say a short message, and more or less introduction. It was done fairly quickly, I thought."

I ask if Republicans would've recoiled had something similar happened in the Obama administration, especially given their criticism that his supporters attached a messianic status to the forty-fourth president. "It was, uh, you know, I looked at that as certainly…it must have been a slow news day," Zinke says.

For all that camera-ready affection for the boss, members of the Trump cabinet, Zinke included, admit to being frustrated with the White House, which they say has left them chronically short-staffed. According to the Partnership for Public Service, the White House has yet to nominate staffers for 357 out of 570 key agency positions. So far, only 50 nominees have been confirmed. (By this time in their first terms, President Obama had gotten 228 confirmed; George W. Bush, 208.)

One theory for the backlog? Trump's fixation on loyalty, which has short-circuited nominations from the State Department to Housing and Urban Development. "If you're blacklisted for having ever criticized Trump," one former State Department official complained to me, "then your government is going to be empty."

Another explanation is the inexperience of Trump's own staff, heavy with government outsiders. "Who's the experienced hand in the Trump White House who would know that this is what needs to happen?" says longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone. "When Reince agreed to become chief of staff, he agreed to hiring powers. This is a failing on his part. He really should go to Greece." (This, in reference to Trump's alleged threat to exile his chief of staff to the Greece ambassadorship. Priebus did not respond to requests for comment.)

Zinke, four months into the job, has been able to fill only two key positions that require White House approval, out of 15 vacancies. He notes that he's submitted the names of "awfully good, just super people," but that the past few months have been a waiting game. "Operating a business sometimes is a little different from operating in the Oval Office," Zinke says. "[In business], it's just 'All right, you're hired.' But I think the White House is running into the swamp…there's a bureaucracy there that's very difficult to determine." (Zinke may have himself to thank for recent inaction, though. The day after his unseemly call to Murkowski, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which the Alaska senator chairs, announced that hearings for a slate of Zinke’s nominees would be delayed.)

Another obstacle has been the infighting and leaking emanating from the White House. The palace intrigue, the fixation on loyalty, the need to hunt down the leakers—it's prompted Trump advisers to give White House aides unprecedented power to keep an eye on each of the cabinet departments. These liaisons were initially tasked with ensuring that agency heads and staff were committed to the president's agenda, and then reporting back. The arrangement created a kind of shadow cabinet that one Republican operative described to me as "zombies loyal to Jared."

Zinke insists that he and his team have gotten along just fine with their designated White House minder, but John Kelly, who served until last week as the secretary of homeland security, was a bit more candid when we spoke. "I don't need a lot of supervision," he told me. "Obviously the White House is getting its legs under it, but early on it was a bit of a pain. They were getting in other people's business a little bit too much." (Kelly's tune will presumably change: On Friday he was named White House chief of staff.)

Over the past few months, as tensions have risen, the White House monitoring system has broken down—and in many agencies, it's now been discontinued entirely. At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, relations became so strained between chief Scott Pruitt and his two White House monitors that Pruitt's chief of staff finally barred them from senior staff meetings, according to a source directly involved in the decision. The White House insisted that the setup was always intended to be temporary, but as one of the former aides told me, "We were prepared to stay and serve the president."

For Zinke, it's a constant cloud of noise that makes the cross-country travel associated with his job all the more enticing. In the past two months, he's traversed such spots as the Arctic Circle, Alaska, Nevada, Utah, up and down New England, and his own home of Montana. "I try to travel as much as I can," Zinke says. "It's good to talk to as many people and park staff as I can on the ground, face-to-face." Frequent contact with park-goers and staff helps him correct misperceptions, he says. Which is useful, because he's found that, with the constant rumors of chaos roiling this administration, "people can be slow to trust us."

Zinke first got the idea that jumping on the Trump train might make sense from his wife, Lola, who went on to serve on the campaign's Hispanic advisory council. She saw in Trump a work ethic that reminded her of her husband. "The president never sleeps," she tells me, "and I've never seen my husband take a sick day."

As he began to campaign for Trump, Zinke then managed to cement a friendship of sorts with his son Donald Trump Jr., a fellow avid fisherman and hunter. The two shared a belief that the federal government ought to be a steward of public lands, something most Republicans believe is best left to the states. All of which helped put Zinke on the path to a plum GOP convention speaking slot and ultimately that interview in Trump Tower. "Zinke was Donny Jr.'s pick," Roger Stone says. "I don't think Trump even knew who he was."

It's tempting to view such moments as happenstance, a chance meeting with a chance figure who opened the door to a chance job. But if Zinke's professional career has shown anything, it's that he's adept at steering himself toward high-profile opportunities. Zinke may not have announced his political intentions quite as publicly as, say, Ted Cruz—who, while still in high school, famously foretold his intended trajectory from Princeton to a Supreme Court clerkship to Texas office—but he set his eyes on politics early. Rich Brooks, then the head football coach at the University of Oregon, remembers a winter morning in 1980 when a tall, lanky Zinke sat down for his recruitment interview and said, plainly, "I want to be the governor of Montana."

His 23 years as a Navy SEAL was part of his plan, too. As Zinke would demonstrate in his zippy eight-year jaunt from the Montana state senate to the president's cabinet, his service as a SEAL was a surefire way of endearing him to Republicans of all stripes. Indeed, Ryan Zinke makes it difficult not to know that he was a SEAL, and not just any old SEAL—a member of the vaunted SEAL Team 6, "the team responsible for the mission to get Osama bin Laden," as much of his past campaign literature states in boldfaced type. (The intentionally ambiguous phrasing drew controversy on the trail, as Zinke had retired a good three years before bin Laden was killed.)

In June, during that now-infamous cabinet meeting, it was notable that Zinke was the only official to tout his own credentials, reminding Trump and everyone in the room and everyone in America watching cable news that he was, lest you forget, a SEAL. It was in that one statement that Zinke underscored the tension that will likely define his tenure: crafting an independent brand within this administration—something to cling to when the currents get rough—while demonstrating the veneration and loyalty this president demands.

"This will be a supreme political test for everyone in proximity to Trump," says Republican operative Steve Schmidt. "There will be a small number of people who emerge from this who…have a brand that's independent from this president, and Zinke has every potential to be one of them. So to the degree he can be out on the road, he should be—far, far away from D.C."

In order to straddle this line, John Kelly, tells me he's advised Zinke, above all, "to protect your prerogatives." But it's unclear how successful Zinke's been in doing that. Beyond lifting the ban on offshore drilling in the Arctic, Zinke has also begun a cross-country tour of monuments that were developed under the Teddy Roosevelt–authored Antiquities Act, reviewing them to see what protections might be rolled back to allow for development. (He says curbing drilling restrictions off coastal monuments, for instance, could help restore the $15.5 billion in revenue he claims was lost under Obama.) Most recently, he announced plans to slash all Obama-era regulations on fracking.

Former Interior officials, initially heartened by Zinke's conservationist rhetoric, are puzzled by the departure in tone. "Right now, the department reflects President Trump's refrain that the fossil-fuel industry is America's future, and doesn't reflect the conservation priorities that Zinke tends to talk about," says former Interior deputy secretary David Hayes. "You have to wonder what changed."

Zinke insists his thinking hasn't evolved since joining the Trump team. "I view that as, quite frankly, absolutely false," he says. "I'm not an advocate for the sale and transfer of public lands. I've outlined a direction that I think is prudent…that you can responsibly harvest timber or produce oil and gas, but you have to hold people accountable. We are blessed with great resources, but it's important that it is used for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. My intentions are true to the Roosevelt legacy."

Whether he has in fact changed, of course, is not necessarily the point. What matters for Zinke is choosing the path that positions him for the next big thing, whether the Trump administration thrives or crumbles. Zinke doesn't quite seem to know yet what that path is. It may be imitating an official like Mattis, who's gamely kept his distance from the larger machinations of Trumpworld. Or perhaps he'll decide that the best way to stay above it all—the distractions and the chatter, as he put it—is to keep his head down. To be, above all, a good soldier.

On a recent Tuesday, I meet Zinke in his C Street office, a cavernous, mahogany space that he tells me is the largest office of any of the cabinet secretaries. (It's actually second to the EPA administrator's.) Featured along the walls are a bust of Teddy Roosevelt, Western art from his own collection, his Oregon football gear, a map of Montana. There's a taxidermy grizzly bear in the far corner, too, erect and with teeth bared.

And then there's the terrace. Zinke may oversee 500 million of the most beautiful acres this country contains—mountains and glaciers and lakes and canyons. But he's lately come to appreciate this sliver of a view, where the emblems of Washington—the monuments, the Capitol—glow under the summer sun. A post-work drink on his private porch, with this vista, is one of the few ways Zinke has managed to look past the morass. As others in the administration occupy themselves with the hellfire of the Russia probe, the mess of the health-care initiative, or the phantom stages of tax reform, Zinke reminds himself that during his first months on the job he's ridden Tonto to work, explored Norway, and instituted the federal government's first "Doggy Days," when hundreds of Interior staffers brought their dogs to work.

He’s also made some new pals. He’s naturally closest with the fellow veterans Mattis and Kelly, the former with whom he served in Iraq, but he's also become good friends with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (the two, along with their wives, sat together at Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's recent Washington wedding. "We all danced a bit," Zinke says). He's fond of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, too. "Secretary Perry is a wonderful guy," he says. "I think he thought his department was more about energy than…science. Mostly, it's science. And, of course, they also have responsibility of our nuclear arsenal. Interior is the one that produces energy…we laugh a lot about it." Couched in Zinke's charming, folksy affect, such a worrisome admission sounds somehow less troubling—more like an inside joke, a quirky facet of Club Cabinet.

Zinke will face scrutiny in the weeks ahead, as the White House responds to his recommendation to shrink Utah's Bears Ears National Monument—one of the last parcels of land Obama designated for federal protection. The 1.3 million red-rocked acres of twisting canyons are home to roughly 100,000 archaeological sites as well as land sacred to Native Americans. No president in history has shrunk the size of a monument, and it remains to be seen how Trump will react to Zinke's recommendation.

When Zinke and I were in the saddle and on the Mall, surveying those monuments to our country's great leaders, I asked him about his own ambitions. He waved off questions about the White House. "I think the president is going to serve two terms," he says. If that does indeed happen, he knows it'll be Pence's turn afterward, and he'll be supporting him. The two have become close since assuming office—"I call Pence the Rock of Gibraltar," Zinke says. "Would you want to be his running mate?" I ask. Despite his best effort, a grin escapes him. "Oh, I don't know about that," he says, in the tone of someone who most certainly does know about that.

I ask him how he feels about tying his own political legacy to Trump's. And like a good soldier, he looks over, flashes a smile, and says, "I should be so lucky."

The naked ambition is breathtaking.