Trump Regime

Rex Tillerson Privatized the State Department

Written by SK Ashby

When former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hollowed out the State Department and fired dozens of careers officials, I assumed it was because Republicans don't really believe in diplomacy or career expertise. Maybe he just wanted to purge anyone who may dissent.

One or more of those things could be true, but it appears he did believe in expertise. Private expertise.

Now that Tillerson has been fired, the vaunted "Redesign" initiative he launched faces an uncertain future, but at least one clear legacy: around $12 million dollars spent just for private consultants who in some cases charged the State Department more than $300 an hour. [...]

As many as 90 consultants worked on the project, according to one document. Many of the consultants have spent extensive time at the State Department, meeting with top officials, collecting and analyzing data, creating PowerPoint presentations and leading group discussions with skeptical employees.

Tillerson fired the career officials that would have performed these duties and replaced them with more expensive consultants.

Now that I think about it, this makes sense. Tillerson was a corporate oil man and this is exactly what a corporation would do.

The number one rule of corporate management is 'if it ain't broke, break it.'