Donald Trump is well-known for appointing completely unqualified people for government positions. The same can be true, unsurprisingly, about his appointed ambassadors. The State Department, in turn, is boasting their completely irrelevant accomplishments.
Yahoo News lovingly combed through the State Department’s list of people representing our country abroad, and some of the qualifications listed are unintentionally hilarious. Like Jamie McCourt, who once co-owned the Jets, and is now the US ambassador to Monaco. McCourt is described as being ready to rep us because she has “lived and worked both domestically and abroad in various industries” and also that she has “written a cookbook, to be published later this year.”
Ultra-rich Richard Duke Buchan III, Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, speaks some Catalan, but they needed to fill out his bio a bit with the info that he and “his wife and their children continue family traditions and manage a farm that grows over 60 varieties of organic heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables. They run a farm stand, develop new varieties of tomatoes and donate fresh produce to local charities.” Ahh, Spain and their famous tomatoes.
Then there’s Callista Gingrich. From Yahoo:
Callista Gingrich, nominated to be the US ambassador to the Vatican, is “the author of the New York Times bestselling Ellis the Elephant children’s series.” And “she has sung for over 20 years at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.” Gingrich’s certificate plays up her Catholic faith, a reflection not just of her presumed posting but of concerns among some in the administration about sending someone to the Vatican whose husband’s marital history — she is former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s third wife — is not especially in line with Catholic doctrine.
Being the Third Wife to Newt Gingrich probably does require diplomacy, actually.