'Secret society' accused of infecting the State Department with 'Trumpian ideas'

Veteran diplomats and Democratic lawmakers are raising the alarm about a private conservative group they accuse of spreading “Trumpian ideas” throughout the State Department. According to reporting by the New York Times, the Ben Franklin Fellowship has been criticized for its invitation-only mission to “identify and recruit diplomats based on ideology.”

While the group claims to be nonpartisan, its founders and members explicitly “aim to promote conservative policy ideas and combat pro-diversity policies.” It regularly posts “pro-Trump” content on its website and works in tandem with Republican officials.

Said the Times, “Critics have likened the fellowship to a secret society that is trying to seed Trumpian ideas throughout the department by helping the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio promote career diplomats who exhibit conservative ideology — including many of the group’s members.” This is a major break from tradition, as “unlike political appointees, career diplomats have traditionally embraced a culture of nonpartisanship.”

Rubio has been accused of “weakening and demoralizing” the department by firing its most experienced diplomats and experts while appointing and promoting those aligned with President Donald Trump, including many Ben Franklin fellows. While some veteran diplomats who spoke with the Times agreed that the department could use improvement, “they insist the changes under Mr. Rubio have gone too far.” On Tuesday, for example, alarm was raised after the State Department fired over 200 Foreign Service officers.

All of this, say critics, is part of Trump’s mission to rid the agency and government of a “woke” mindset. The Ben Franklin Fellowship’s overwhelmingly white, male membership speaks to that goal, and since it has worked its way into the agency, current and former diplomats have “denounced a new State Department video recruiting campaign with imagery that almost exclusively features white men. It includes many black-and-white photographs of early- and mid-20th century workers, recalling an era when the diplomatic corps was mockingly known for being ‘pale, male and Yale.’”

According to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, “We have one fundamental goal: to implement President Trump’s America First foreign policy.”

As the Times notes, “As a 501(c)3 nonprofit group, the group is not required to disclose its funding sources publicly. It was the recipient last year of a financial ‘innovation prize’ from the Heritage Foundation, which hailed it for ‘rejecting ideological conformity’ and ‘producing a new generation of diplomats committed to an America First vision.’”

On Monday, Representative Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent Rubio a letter demanding “immediate clarification” of the group’s role in the department. “The letter noted that at least 25 of the group’s members, known as fellows, hold senior State Department jobs. The highest ranking fellow in the agency is Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state.” Another, Lew Olowski, who previously served as general counsel for Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller News Foundation and has inveighed against career diplomats who testified during Trump’s first impeachment, “is now the top official in the office of foreign missions, which oversees U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide.”

According to John R. Bass, a career diplomat and three-time ambassador who retired last year after serving in two under secretary roles, the Ben Franklin Fellowship is “the opposite of a meritocracy,” and “its selection process is nontransparent, its application process is nontransparent, its funding is nontransparent.”

Eric Rubin, another retired diplomat with over 40 years of experience, including as the head of the American Foreign Service Association, recently wrote that the fellowship “functions as the equivalent of a Communist Party cell in Soviet government ministries.”

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