BE SMART ABOUT: Pete Marocco, New Political Appointee at U.S. Agency for International Development

BE SMART ABOUT is an ongoing series at Smart Dissent but truthfully we haven't added to it in likely more than a year.  We continue to report on the horrific people populating the Trump Swamp but without doing an official entry to the series.  We've got one to add today and Trump's only got a few months months to add swamp creatures for us to research fortunately.

The arrival of a new political appointee is spawning confusion and concern at the U.S. Agency for International Development....

Pete Marocco, who to date has held positions or details at the departments of Defense, State and Commerce under Trump, has now joined the aid agency.  

His transfer from the Pentagon to the aid agency, which manages roughly $20 billion in foreign aid each year, is being greeted with all the excitement of a root canal.

Marocco left the Department of Defense after criticism that he created a toxic work environment by undermining and mistreating career staffers.  He would frequently go outside the chain of command to influence policy in ways that made his colleagues uncomfortable.  Very Republican of him.

Marocco, who previously was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for Africa affairs, will run USAID’s new Conflict Prevention and Stabilization bureau, a job that gives him sway over a range of programs designed to help strengthen institutions in fragile states overseas. 

Marocco left a bitter trail at the Pentagon and in Foggy Bottom, dogged by criticism that he created a toxic work environment by undermining and mistreating career staffers. POLITICO spoke to seven U.S. government officials worried about Marocco’s move to yet another agency

Two U.S. officials who worked directly with Marocco, both of whom requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, described how he frequently undermined career staffers, causing several to flee their divisions.

USAID had been spared a lot of  the Trump Swamp until recent months as we reported on June 17, 2020, but now falling into the pit of despair.

USAID staffers have already been frustrated by the arrival of several other new political appointees whose past comments have sparked concerns about discrimination and other fears...

John Barsa took over as USAID’s acting administrator in April.  He succeeded Mark Green, who had kept USAID largely insulated from the many storms of the Trump years. 

Green’s departure has given the White House an opportunity to install political appointees some top Trump aides deem more loyal to the president. But several of those appointees have histories of comments that are Islamophobic, anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ and even anti-democracy.

There's was no one imore qualified to fill the USAID's conflict bureau than Rob Jenkins.  And they push him aside to find a landing spot for Marocco.

The possibility that Marocco could lead the conflict prevention bureau upset some USAID staffers in particular because a widely respected career official was supposed to get that role, the title of which is technically “assistant to the administrator.” 

That employee, Rob Jenkins, is “beloved” in the agency, one of several USAID officials said in praising him.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/usaid-chief-conflict-marocco-352010