Zelenskyy explained, “I told him that if he gave us the weapons we need and stopped supporting Putin, we would let him build Trump-branded hotels and other Trump-branded buildings in Ukraine’s ten largest cities, as well as Trump golf courses in the countryside. He was quite excited.”   read more

In a major political victory for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over former White House advisor Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump has nominated Susan A. Thornton to lead the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Thornton, who has been acting assistant secretary since March 2017, was strongly opposed by Bannon, who bragged to an interviewer in August that he was “getting Susan Thornton out at State” because she was not sufficiently hawkish.   read more

In 1994, Brogan won election as Florida’s commissioner of education, but not without opposition from teachers’ unions. “We never got comfortable that he had kids at heart,” said Florida Teaching Professional's Jeff Wright. “We felt many of his moves were political.” Brogan was a good fit as Jeb Bush’s running mate in the state gubernatorial election, echoing Bush's support of charter schools, and his promotion of “voluntary” prayer and “creation theory” in public schools.   read more

President Trump once again chose someone to lead an agency whose existence he opposes. Trump nominated Scott Garrett in April 2017, but, in the end, even some Republicans couldn’t stomach Garrett, and he was rejected on Dec. 19, 2017, by the Senate Banking Committee, whose Democratic members wrote: "The Export-Import Bank is far too important to the U.S.'s economy to place it under the stewardship of such an avowed opponent. It is unconscionable that the president would nominate Mr. Garrett.”   read more

Goldstein moved into media in 2001 as vice president/chief communications officer for Dow Jones, owner of The Wall Street Journal. He presided over the company’s response to two tragedies: the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, right across the street from Journal offices; and the kidnapping and subsequent brutal execution of Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002. Goldstein made many of the decisions on what information to release about Pearl in the weeks after he was abducted.   read more

Matz participated in the 1989-90 invasion of Panama as assistant division commander of the 7th Infantry Division. In 1990, he was named deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Pacific, based at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. In 2002, Metz moved to Saudi Arabia to head the Saudi National Guard modernization program for Vinnell-Arabia/Northrop Grumman. In 2005, he became president and administrator of the Society of Military Widows and president and CEO of the National Association for Uniformed Services.   read more

Multiple agencies weren't following best practices for initiatives to help Indian tribes achieve their energy goals. Development of tribes' resources requires approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where we've found long-running federal mismanagement of Indian energy resources. We've also found that deteriorating facilities have led to unsafe conditions at Bureau of Indian Education schools. Misused funds included $1.7 million that was improperly transferred to off-shore accounts.   read more

In nominating McWilliams, Trump has inched closer to finalizing his banking regulation team, which he intends to use to undermine the financial system protections adopted under President Barack Obama. McWilliams’ deep involvement with the banking industry began in 2007, when she joined the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as an attorney. In 2010 she joined the Senate Small Business Committee to work on financial regulations, economic policy, and related small business issues.   read more

President Trump has selected a car dealer to serve as the next ambassador to Morocco. Although David Fischer has no known connections to Morocco, he gave $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration committee and has donated heavily to Republican candidates for many years. Fischer began his career as a service advisor at his dad’s dealership, which he took over in 1978. It is the 16th largest automotive retail dealer group in the U.S. Fischer is currently CEO of the North American International Auto Show.   read more

Stewart spent about five years working in the office of Illinois Governor James Thompson (R) on his policy and program staff. In 1991, as Thompson’s term was ending, Stewart moved into government relations for Commonwealth Edison, the Chicago-area electric utility. She returned to politics in 1996 as deputy chief of staff to Lt. Governor Bob Kustra (R-Illinois). Stewart stayed there only briefly, however, leaving in 1997 to become a vice president at the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm.   read more

In 2005, Pres. George W. Bush nominated Schneider to lead NCES (part of IES). The administration favored charter schools, putting Schneider in an awkward position when an Education Dept report showed that fourth-graders in public schools did much better in math and reading than those at charter schools. So Schneider said the Education Dept should stop studying such questions. “We know [charter schools] are not doing harm," he said, "so they pass a fundamental test of policy analysis.”   read more

In June 2010, Ciocoi was appointed to his first ambassadorship, as envoy to Germany. In March 2011, he was named non-resident ambassador to Denmark as well. After spending the first nineteen years of his diplomatic career focused on Europe, Ciocoi himself was “surprised” when he was appointed to serve as ambassador to China, with concurrent accreditation to Vietnam, in October 2015. He served in Beijing until April 2017, when he was recalled in anticipation of his U.S. assignment.   read more

Olofsdotter joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1994. Her first foreign posting was in Moscow, where she was responsible for covering issues related to Belarus. She also served on the Swedish delegation to NATO. She next served at Sweden’s mission to the EU in Belgium, and chaired the EU’s Political-Military Group during the Swedish presidency of the EU in 2001. Her first posting in the U.S. was as minister-counselor and deputy chief of mission at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC.   read more

Johnson joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1992 and has been posted overseas at U.S. embassies in Lebanon, Pakistan, Angola and South Africa. She was also detailed to the Office of the Secretary General of NATO in Belgium. Johnson served as director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council starting in 2001. She also served as deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Canadian Affairs and as senior advisor for South and Central Asia in the Office of the Vice President.   read more

Šimunović started his career as a journalist at Večernji List, a conservative daily newspaper in Zagreb, from 1988 to 1990. He covered the unraveling of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, including free elections in Poland, the Romanian Revolution, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and other events. He later served as national coordinator for NATO, as well as assistant minister for International Organizations and Security, from 2004 to 2008, and as ambassador to Israel from 2012 to 2016.   read more

In July 2014, McClenny was named chargé d’affaires in Caracas, Venezuela. With no ambassador at the embassy because of poor relations between the governments of the United States and Venezuela, McClenny bore the brunt of that government’s attacks. This included a meeting with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on August 12, 2017, after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he was considering using “the military option” against Venezuela.   read more

Katende’s appointment was reportedly precipitated by a need for someone with broad skills and deep experience to deal with the new Trump administration. A longtime diplomat, Katende served as Uganda’s ambassador to Sudan from 2003 to 2008, when crises in both the Darfur and South Sudan regions reached critical states. From 2008 to mid-2017, Katende was Uganda’s top diplomat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where numerous UN, African, and regional organizations have their headquarters.   read more