According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

In 2006, Kmoníček was appointed ambassador to India. Among his many responsibilities was helping a Czech scientist who had been arrested by Indian officials for illegally collecting rare beetles. The scientist later discovered a beetle in China, which he named Anthaxia Kmoníček--for Kmoníček. Kmoníček has predicted that “Donald Trump’s administration will be a combination of the aggressive isolationism of Andrew Jackson together with the strategy of Richard Nixon minus Kissinger.”   read more

Zulhasnan became Federal Territories minister in 2006 after his predecessor was convicted of corruption charges. When a top Malaysian official, en route to address the UN General Assembly, was forced at L.A. Airport security to remove his shoes and belt, Zulhasnan demanded that U.S. government officials be subjected to the same treatment when they traveled to Malaysia. Later, Zulhasnan became executive director of a company specializing in property development and the production of palm oil.   read more

President Kennedy famously said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” This was a rallying cry for over a million Americans to serve, and contributed to creation of services like Peace Corps. Today, President Trump proposes getting government out of the business of national service. Yet in today's divided nation, new research demonstrates that national service programs can bring people together.   read more

Kazykhanov spent his entire career at the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry. Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 mock documentary, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," was banned in Kazakhstan. However, in 2012, Kazykhanov admitted that the film had actually boosted the tourism industry in his country, noting, “For us, it is a great victory. I am grateful to Borat, the main character of the movie, for tourists' keen interest to (come to) Kazakhstan.”   read more

As Foreign Ministry spokesperson in 2013, Chaudhry found himself in an awkward position when secret documents were published showing that the Pakistani government had cooperated with the CIA’s drone bombing program inside Pakistan’s borders. Chaudhry was left to explain that even if this was true, the current government, installed four months earlier, would not continue the complicity, stating “We regard such strikes as a violation of our sovereignty as well as international law."   read more

Bakradze was named ambassador to Greece in 2012. He returned home in 2014 to become state minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Early in his short tenure as ambassador to Greece, Bakradze, along with five other ambassadors, has requested U.S. help in stopping Russian interference in the countries’ internal affairs. Bakradze cited Russian broadcasts into Georgia, a former Soviet republic, urging its citizens to oppose Georgia becoming a member of NATO.   read more

Wilczek, a literary scholar with no previous diplomatic experience, is no stranger to the U.S., having taught Polish literature and culture as a visiting professor. He belongs to the American Study Group at the Polish Institute of Int'l Affairs, where members discuss and analyze political and cultural developments in the U.S. Despite his lack of experience, Wilzcek earned praise back home for his defense of Poland’s right-populist government against a critical article in The Washington Post.   read more

Nearly a third of recent veterans have federal jobs, many more than would have them in the absence of preferential hiring. This makes it an effective policy to express the nation’s thanks for veterans’ sacrifices. Yet all policies come with costs. Applicants without military service pay some of them by having a lower chance to get these jobs, and non-vets are concentrated among women and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic, Asian and gay men. The nation loses from a less diverse federal service.   read more

During his tenure at the NLRB, Miscimarra, a Republican, has consistently sided with employers over employees and opposed the expansion of union rights. However, just five days before Donald Trump’s election, Miscimarra joined a unanimous NLRB opinion to force Trump’s Las Vegas hotel to recognize the Unite Here union after the hotel workers had voted to unionize. In 2005, Miscimarra joined the law firm of Morgan Lewis and Bockius, the same year that the firm began representing Trump.   read more

As prime minister, Veiga in 1992 oversaw the creation of a new constitution and flag for the country. He also began to bring in private investment to the nation that is heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances to keep its economy going. Veiga was known for moving his cabinet ministers around and sometimes firing them to keep from developing a power base from which they could challenge him. In 1998, Veiga was injured in a plane crash that killed one of his bodyguards.   read more

As director of the City of Houston Department of Housing and Community Development (HCDD), Rackleff was responsible for community development projects, affordable housing, and neighborhood revitalization. During his term as director, HCDD produced 7,800 multifamily housing units and helped 1,700 single-family homeowners with rebuilding hurricane-damaged homes. He also worked on the redevelopment of the historic downtown building now housing the J.W. Marriott Hotel.   read more

Long joined the George W. Bush administration in 2001 as a hurricane program manager in FEMA for six states—but, significantly, not Louisiana, which bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina. One of his achievements was the distribution of an educational hurricane computer game for grade-schools. In 2008, Long became director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, where he directed the state’s response to incidents as different as the H1N1 flu virus and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.   read more

“I am not going to shoot you, brother.” In what world do those words being said by a police officer result in that officer being fired? You don’t have to go down the rabbit hole in search of a place where up is down, left is right, and war is peace. All you need do is go to Weirton, West Virginia. Police Officer Stephen Mader was fired from his job for not killing a Black man when he could have. He’s now in a battle that seems both absurd and highlights the absurdity of our times.   read more

An educator by profession, Gilchrist effected a major career change in 2009 by accepting an offer to become an education officer at the Ministry of Education, where she was responsible for the security and administration of all external examinations from January to October 2009. She was soon promoted to chief education officer at the Ministry of Education, where she supervised educational processes in schools from October 2009 to September 2016.   read more

When Serbia and Montenegro split in 2006, in June Kaluđerović became Montenegro’s representative at the United Nations, running his country’s mission out of his son’s bedroom, and ambassador after that country became a member. While serving as UN ambassador, Kaluđerović was invited to speak at a New York meeting of the Nero Wolfe society, the Wolfe Pack, because the fictional detective created by Rex Stout was said to have been born in Montenegro.   read more

Alles is the first Secret Service director in more than 100 years who didn't come from within Secret Service ranks. In 2003, in spite of official denials, Alles defended the use of a napalm-like substance in the Iraq war, saying, “The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect.” Working for Border Protection in 2013, Alles defended the use of $18 million Predator drones, costing more than $12,000 an hour to operate, for drug interdictions when cheaper platforms were available.   read more