Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

Trump's State Department in Cone of Silence Due to Lack of Staff

Bloomberg: U.S. allies and adversaries looking for clarity on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy will have to wait a bit longer to get that guidance from Rex Tillerson’s State Department.

For the third consecutive week since Trump took office, State Department press briefings normally held every workday haven’t been scheduled, no chief of staff has been named and many of the most senior posts at the department remain vacant. By this time in the Obama administration, the State Department had given 11 daily briefings.

“The schedule has been slipping for years, but this may be the most extreme case ever,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs who served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union. “Al Haig had all his assistant secretaries picked by the second week of January 1981 -- Tillerson will be lucky to have them picked by April Fool’s Day or in place by the 4th of July. For a secretary of state who’s just learning the issues, this will be a real source of weakness.”

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