The Atlantic: The State of Trump’s State Department
“…This week began with reports that President Donald Trump’s budget proposal will drastically slash the State Department’s funding, and last week ended with White House adviser and former Breitbart head Stephen Bannon telling the attendees of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference that what he and the new president were after was a ‘deconstruction of the administrative state.’ At the State Department, which employs nearly 70,000 people around the world, that deconstruction is already well underway. … There hasn’t been a State Department press briefing, once a daily ritual, since the new administration took over five weeks ago — though they’re scheduled to resume March 6. These briefings weren’t just for journalists. They also served as a crucial set of cues for U.S. diplomats all over the world about policy priorities, and how to talk about them. With no daily messaging, and almost no guidance from Washington, people in far-flung posts are flying blind even as the pace of their diplomacy hasn’t abated…” (Ioffe, 3/1).