News broke on Tuesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had hired long-time “Never Trumper” and former Wall Street Journal editorial writer Mary Kissel as senior adviser for policy and strategic messaging. That’s right, a “Never Trumper” who vehemently opposed the policies Trump campaigned on is now advising Trump’s secretary of state on policy.
This should seem like an oxymoron, a strange coincidence, or an unbelievable stroke of luck on the part of Kissel. Sadly, for Trump supporters, it’s not.
Hiring critics and firing loyalists is business as usual for the Trump administration. The outsider candidate who successfully campaigned against the Republican establishment, the neocons, the Bush administration, and the permanent political class has filled his administration with the same swamp creatures he promised to drain.
Kissel is an outlier in the sense that Trump rebuked her on Twitter after she spent months attacking him. Nonetheless, Pompeo still hired Kissel, without fear that any action would be taken against him for bringing a known critic of Trump into the administration.
The new State Department policy adviser was unlike many “Never Trumpers” who disliked Trump because of his style. No, Kissel opposed Trump on substance. She flat-out disagrees with him on the issues.
Some of Kissel’s tweets against Trump included her claim that campaigning on deporting illegal immigrants was a “political loser.” She also said, “Trump is delusional on foreign policy. Frightening ignorance.” Kissel suggested that the way to approach immigration is to increase legal immigration and that Jeb “illegal immigration is an act of love” Bush was the only Republican in the primary having a serious, nuanced position on the subject. She predicted Trump’s ideas on tariffs and immigration would crush the economy and that the terrorist attack at a Brussels airport committed by homegrown Islamic terrorists was the result of America not having a larger footprint overseas.
Even on Election Day, while witnessing Trump’s stunning upset victory, Kissel credited the results as a referendum on Obamacare.
Kissel is so wrong so frequently that not only should she not be advising Pompeo on policy, she shouldn’t be employed by a single newspaper in the country to talk about politics. It is frightening that Kissel has managed to fail forward.
The State Department tried to downplay her comments by telling Politico that they “reflected her role as a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.” It’s a dishonest statement at best. Kissel continued to attack Trump even after other writers at the Wall Street Journal cozied up to him. Most recently she attacked Trump for meeting with Kim Jong Un.
Still, Kissel will feel right at home in the Trump administration, which is full of employees who work day-and-night opposing Trump’s agenda and the promises he made to his voters. Kissel’s hire is not an abnormality, it’s the status quo. As the personnel has become more establishment and less focused on making America great again, so have the policies coming out of the White House.
For example, Pompeo hired another “Never Trumper,” Jim Jeffrey, who opposed Trump during the campaign after the billionaire condemned the Iraq War and said he wanted to avoid long-term conflicts in the Middle East. Jeffrey is now the representative for Syria engagement and said policy has shifted from a light footprint in the war-torn to country to the U.S. having a “more active approach in Syria” and with “no rush to leave.”
Another “Never Trumper” who altered policy goals of the Trump administration was former legislative director Marc Short, who ran a multimillion-dollar campaign opposing Trump in the primaries. He was a former Koch Brothers employee who openly admitted he wasn’t cutting deals with Republicans in Congress to do anything about immigration.
There’s also Johnny DeStefano, who was the director of presidential personnel and now is a counselor to the president. DeStefano has earned the ire of conservatives like Mark Levin and Richard Viguerie for his establishment leanings and flooding the administration with former Bush personnel and Trump critics.
During a sit-down interview with ABC back in October, first lady Melania Trump revealed that she believed there were members of the Trump administration that couldn’t be trusted. She was right; maybe Trump should lean on her more to do the vetting and hiring. Maybe Melania can drain the swamp?
Ryan Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a writer based in New York.
