White House uses foreign aid agency to give jobs to Trump loyalists

[Borealis]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/white-house-uses-foreign-aid-agency-to-give-jobs-to-trump-loyalists/2018/07/28/3f819ac2-86da-11e8-8589-5bb6b89e3772_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d26e3a7ed98b

The White House has assumed control over hiring at a small federal agency that promotes economic growth in poor countries, installing political allies and loyalists in appointed jobs 
intended for development experts, according to documents and interviews.

Until the Trump administration, only the chief executive and several other top officials of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) were selected by the White House, former agency
officials said. The chief executive, in turn, used authority granted to the agency by Congress to appoint about two dozen other staffers, primarily for their technical ­expertise.

But starting last year, the White House began naming political appointees to the lower-level positions, according to internal rosters obtained by The Washington Post and interviews
with former employees and other knowledgeable people. The employees were warned by an agency leader they could lose their jobs to make way for the new political appointees,
the former employees said.

Fourteen allies and Trump loyalists have been placed at the agency as political appointees so far — more than double the number of political staff on the day the president took office,
the rosters show.

In recent weeks, Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, put a hold on a water project in Mongolia while congressional investigators
examined the impact of the Trump appointments at MCC. Two weeks ago, he lifted the hold as part of a negotiation with Senate Republicans for limited access to MCC résumés
and other personnel documents.

In a statement to The Post, Menendez condemned the administration’s “practice of replacing seasoned professional and programmatic experts with patronage hires.” He said that
“blind loyalty seemingly trumps qualifications, experience and career public servants.”

In September, the White House appointed a political liaison to the agency — apparently the first in its history. Six employees have been reassigned to make room for Trump
appointees. Those reassigned include the agency’s chief risk officer and the leader of the team responsible for coordinating efforts with the private sector. Three others were
forced to leave, according to interviews with former employees and internal documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The most controversial of the new appointees is Robert Blau, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as a speechwriter on Trump’s campaign. He was named MCC’s vice president
of compact operations in the spring of 2017. Soon after arriving, he filled his office with Trump campaign memorabilia, which he later removed after colleagues suggested it was
not appropriate for a federal office, according to officials at the agency at the time who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

During a staff town hall meeting last year, Blau, who was then director of operations, described himself as “a partisan conservative Republican” and complained that certain media
were “out to get Trump every day,” according to a routine recording of the meeting made by the ­agency.

The spoils system is back baby!

[Helix Snake]

This is literally the shit Stalin did when he got into power.