Tuesday, July 14, 2020

What did Donald Trump do today?

He appointed a supporter with bogus academic credentials and connections to literal Nazis to a national security job.

Today, Trump announced the appointment of "Dr." Sebastian Gorka to the National Security Education Board. The NSEB oversees a program that administers scholarships, awards grants, and funds language initiatives aimed at enhancing American national security.

Gorka briefly served in the Trump administration at the start of the term, but was forced out after it became apparent that he'd lied during his application to become an American citizen. Specifically, he failed to disclose his ties to an extremist, Nazi-linked Hungarian group. 

At the same time, Gorka's supposed academic credential—a doctoral degree from "Corvinus University" in Hungary—was discredited. It was awarded by a committee made up of two members who lacked graduate degrees themselves, and a third who had already published a book with Gorka. Its topic is Islamic terrorism, but Gorka has never traveled to the Middle East and does not speak or read Arabic.

So what?

  • National security jobs are too important to hand out to unqualified political supporters.