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

Under Verma’s “Healthy Indiana Plan,” healthcare in the state has gone from bad to worse. In 2006, it was the 33rd healthiest state in a ranking by American Public Health Association and the United Health Foundation. By 2015, Indiana had fallen to 41st nationwide, The Washington Post reported. Verma has also consulted on similar plans for Michigan, Tennessee and Iowa. Her Indiana Plan removed people from Medicaid if they failed to contribute to a health savings account.   read more

Vrooman served as deputy political counselor at the U.S. mission to the United Nations from 2000 to 2005, and was an advisor on the Middle East. He then served three straight postings concerned with that region: as deputy political counselor at the embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel (circa 2006 to 2008); at the embassy in Baghdad, Iraq (circa 2008 to 2009); and as director for Iraq on the staff of the National Security Council (circa 2009 to 2011).   read more

In 1991, Beach was named president of the Institute of Humane Studies, which is funded by the Koch brothers, supporters of right-wing institutions. In 1995, Beach moved to the similarly oriented Heritage Foundation, where he co-authored a paper that promoted abandoning the Social Security system in favor of putting money into the financial markets. In the midst of the Great Recession that began under George W. Bush, Beach urged that unemployment benefits be cut.   read more

Bernstein claims to speak only “basic Spanish.” But she is a founding member of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, which apparently qualified her to be the U.S. representative to the Dominican Republic. A former Democrat, Bernstein worked to persuade Democratic-leaning Jewish voters to support the GOP. She is a longtime friend of Trump's and handles insurance for some of his interests. Bernstein was a 2016 Trump delegate and one of his Florida electors in the Electoral College.   read more

Among Mugno's duties as safety VP for FedEx's Ground unit was serving as “brain coach” and “den mother” for FedEx drivers in National Truck Driving Championship competitions. Industry groups welcomed his appointment to OSHA, who has represented American Trucking Associations at Congressional hearings, believing he'll continue the Trump administration’s drive to weaken worker-protection regulations put in place under Obama. Mugno is an enthusiastic Trump supporter who attended his inauguration.   read more

Braithwaite’s Naval Reserve duties included serving at NAS Willow Grove (Pennsylvania) in its combat camera unit; deploying to Iraq in 2003 in a naval support role; and becoming commander of the Joint Public Affairs Support Element-Reserve in October 2004. In this role, he was deployed to Pakistan to assist with relief efforts for a major 2005 earthquake. Braithwaite retired from the Naval Reserve in 2011. In 2016 he served on Trump’s Defense Department transition team.   read more

As government relations manager for ASRC, Sweeney supported oil drilling along the Coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2010, as ASRC vice-president of external affairs, as part of her pro-oil drilling stance, she opposed the designation of a large portion of the North Slope as a critical habitat in order to protect polar bears. In 2015, she told The New York Times that the Arctic “is not a pristine snow globe that deserves to be tucked away and preserved.”   read more

Gardner is a vocal defender of the coal industry and often minimizes mining's environmental damage. Environmental groups blasted his appointment to OSM. “...He will try and fight anything that gets in the way of profits for coal executives—even if it means sacrificing the health of the families...in Kentucky,” said Sierra Club's Tom Morris. “...He has shown nothing but contempt for science-based clean air and water protections for working people, and dutifully pandered to corporate polluters..."   read more

Psychiatric illness, mood disorders and lack of social support are recognized risk factors for suicide. Some studies show that increased elevation may enhance psychological problems, such as panic attacks, and that altitude is a significant risk factor for depressive symptoms and suicide. It's now shown that Americans in higher-altitude counties are at a higher risk for suicide. In Utah, the average geographic altitude is about 6,000 feet, and the rate of suicide is 70% higher than average.   read more

Demers helped draft Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, which allows the NSA to collect emails and other electronic communications of foreign targets overseas, including correspondence with U.S. citizens. At his confirmation hearing last week, Demers made it clear that the NSA should not be required to obtain an FBI warrant before searching the communications of American citizens. He also waffled on the subject of whether journalists should be jailed for refusing to reveal their sources.   read more

Myers, whose company supported efforts to restrict the ability of the NWS to provide taxpayer-funded weather forecasts to the public, has been nominated to lead the NOAA. If confirmed, he will be only the second leader in the agency’s history not to have a background in science. Myers said he "was originally enrolled in meteorology as an undergraduate [but] then dropped out of school because I was a horrible student. I was never interested in learning, which I look at now as sort of funny.”   read more

In 2007, Nielsen became general counsel for the national security division of Civitas Group, a strategic advisory and investment firm. In 2012, she became president of Sunesis, consulting on preparedness strategies. She also served as a civilian expert to NATO. By 2016, she was chair of Global Agenda Council on Risk and Resilience at the World Economic Forum. Nielsen then joined the Trump administration as chief of staff to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kelly.   read more

A focus of Cissna's is the H1-B program, which concerns putting workers with technical skills in jobs that can’t be filled by U.S. citizens. He’s seen by the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigrant think tank, as being tougher on immigration and could undo policies such as letting spouses of H1-B holders get work permits. In 2016, while director of immigration policy at Homeland Security, Cissna volunteered as an advisor to Trump’s presidential campaign regarding immigration policy.   read more

An alternative energy investment firm representing foreign investors sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday, claiming it has merely “spun its wheels” to delay worthy immigrants’ visas. The California Energy Investment Center claims in federal court that USCIS has unreasonably delayed the visa applications of 200 immigrant investors who provided $100 million in funding for the McCoy solar energy plant in Riverside County, California.   read more

The fate of the “fiduciary rule,” a key protection for workers’ retirement plans that has been criticized by President Trump, will rest with Preston Rutledge, Trump’s nominee for administrator of the EBSA. Rutledge has served the IRS as a tax law specialist in the Office of Chief Counsel and on the staff of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. He then moved to Congress, serving as a senior tax and benefits counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch.   read more

At the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing group funded largely by fossil fuel interests and pro-corporate groups, White has specialized in denying the conclusions reached by about 97% of climate scientists worldwide. In her zeal to defend fossil fuels, White has claimed that “Fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery.” At TECQ, she voted to approve a new coal plant despite a prior court ruling that the pollution controls for the proposal would not work.   read more