"These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government."

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 09, 2017
At ProPublica, Justin Elliott, Derek Kravitz, and Al Shaw have written an extensive piece on the "hundreds of officials Trump has quietly installed across the government."
A Trump campaign aide who argues that Democrats committed "ethnic cleansing" in a plot to "liquidate" the white working class. A former reality show contestant whose study of societal collapse inspired him to invent a bow-and-arrow-cum-survivalist multi-tool. A pair of healthcare industry lobbyists. A lobbyist for defense contractors. An "evangelist" and lobbyist for Palantir, the Silicon Valley company with close ties to intelligence agencies. And a New Hampshire Trump supporter who has only recently graduated from high school.

These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government, according to documents received by ProPublica through public-records requests.

While President Trump has not moved to fill many jobs that require Senate confirmation, he has quietly installed hundreds of officials to serve as his eyes and ears at every major federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Department of Interior.

Unlike appointees exposed to the scrutiny of the Senate, members of these so-called "beachhead teams" have operated largely in the shadows, with the White House declining to publicly reveal their identities.

...The list we obtained includes obscure campaign staffers, contributors to Breitbart and others who have embraced conspiracy theories, as well as dozens of Washington insiders who could be reasonably characterized as part of the "swamp" Trump pledged to drain.

...The beachhead team members are temporary employees serving for stints of four to eight months, but many are expected to move into permanent jobs. The Trump administration's model is based on plans developed but never used by the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

"The beachhead teams involve people with considerable authority over the federal government," said Max Stier, the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advises presidential candidates on smooth transitions. "We need clarity about what they're doing and what their role is going to be."
There is much more at the link.

And if you imagine that Trump knew about "plans developed but never used by" Romney to assist in getting a coterie of deplorables in through the back door, I've got a bridge to sell you. I can guess who did know about those plans, though. Ahem.

Additionally, ProPublica did a complementary tweetstorm to the piece, at the end of which they invited readers to share information on other names on the list.

Aphra_Behn took them up on their offer. Her tweets, shared with her permission, are below the fold.


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