Obama, Clinton Alumni Serve At UN, Continuing Liberal Influence Over International Affairs During Trump Era
Obama and Clinton-era alumni were named to top jobs at the United Nations just before and after Trump’s inauguration, enabling them to maintain Democrats’ influence on international affairs. People opposed to President Donald Trump’s policies permeate the State Department and U.N. bureaucracies and seemingly resist the administration’s agenda. The U.S. often has influence over which Americans are hired into top jobs at international organizations, but non-insiders often aren’t aware of their importance.
Tensions between the Trump administration and employees in the foreign service and international organizations — including some that serve at the pleasure of the president — have repeatedly come to the fore in recent weeks. When President Donald Trump addressed the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 26, “someone laughed loudly,” while others “spoke in hushed murmurs,” The Washington Post reported. (The mission consists of U.S. government employees interacting with the U.N., while some Americans also occupy jobs at the U.N. itself.) The Americans who work in top jobs at international organizations wield significant influence and ordinarily get the jobs with the backing of the administration, Brett D. Schaefer, a United Nations expert at the Heritage Foundation who serves as a U.N. official after being nominated by Trump, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. But because the slots aren’t federal jobs, they do not appear on the organizational chart of U.S. agencies and amount to some of the government’s more obscure nooks and crannies, he said.
