Sane, normal Americans frequently find themselves perplexed by the antics of the State Department. “Why the hell would they do that?” is a common refrain. That’s largely because Normal Americans expect the United States Department of State to act in America’s interests, silly Normal Americans.

Graphic: X Screenshot

One of the fortunate side effects of the House of Representative’s recent and necessary reduction of a 1547-page funding bill to one only a bit over 100 pages was the defunding of the State Department’s “Global Engagement Center.” Americans may be forgiven for having no idea what that is or why the State Department might have anything to do with it. They’ll be less forgiving when they learn what it actually did/does:

Founded in 2016 and technically the product of an Obama-era executive order on counterterrorism, the GEC lapsed in December and lost congressional funding. Over the last two years, my investigative reporting in the Washington Examiner as well as that of Racket News journalist Matt Taibbi pulled back the curtain of the GEC’s ties to foreign and domestic NGOs trying to defund news outlets they say peddle disinformation – including RealClearPolitics. My reporting showed that the GEC and the State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy combined granted almost $1 million to the British Global Disinformation Index, which created a blacklist of U.S.-based websites that published content it determined to push “adversarial narratives” and then pressured advertisers to shut them down (think the Hunter Biden laptop story and COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis).

The GEC, moreover, was involved with the Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium of left-wing nonprofit groups, universities, and federal agencies that pressured Twitter and Facebook to remove GOP-aligned content in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. The GEC also bankrolled New York-based company NewsGuard, a “misinformation” tracker that, along with the Global Disinformation Index, has found itself at the center of a lawsuit brought by the Federalist, the Daily Wire, and the State of Texas against the GEC for allegedly  funding an unconstitutional “censorship scheme” that suppressed voices on the right.

Like all good government censors, the GEC and its affiliates routinely accused anyone who disagreed with it of colluding with Russia. Fortunately, that has about as much effect these days as crying “racist!” Unfortunately, anti-American State Department operatives aren’t stopped by small matters such as Congress cutting off their funding. They’ve simply rebranded the GEC: 

Allow me to introduce you to the “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub,” a polysyllabic, “rebranded” version of the GEC. Many of the people employed by the GEC are now employed by the new “hub.” They’ll need new business cards, stationery, and signs for their offices. Doubtless, there will be other expenses. But since much of the GEC’s budget has been “realigned” to the new shop, that won’t be a problem.

That’s not the end of the story. Donald Trump takes office in two weeks. As The New York Post reported, news about the rebranding of the GEC has sparked outrage. Said one GOP aide, Trump and incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio will have “to track every single office, down to every single staffer, if they want to end the weaponization of the federal government against conservatives.”

There seems little doubt Trump intends to end government waste and corruption by defenestrating the Deep State, and the GEC/CFIMIH qualifies on both counts. But as the old saying goes, when you’re up to you ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember your objective was draining the swamp.

This would be a useful and historic task for J.D. Vance, who could make the vice presidency worth immeasurably more than a bucket of warm spit. Turn him, and a vastly expanded staff, loose on the individuals and agencies DOGE identifies for firing and elimination. Make Vance the house cleaning czar who ensures excess and malicious federal employees aren’t simply slipped into another agency or a rebranded, do-nothing but harm America and Americans, job. Give him and his staff the mandate to ensure executive orders are strictly followed, and money clawed back from corrupt NGOs, and grants and pork slipped under the table to Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) cronies is actually sent back to the Treasury.

Even though Trump would prefer to do it, give Vance the authority to walk into the offices of destructive, entitled bureaucrats and say: “you’re fired!” Give the same authority to his deputies who will need to knock on the doors of “work-at-home” functionaries to deliver the that sanitizing message.

When cleaning up a corrupt government, the devil is in the details and the primary detail is going to be keeping the Deep State from sabotaging Trump’s lawful orders and ignoring the law. Completely eliminating the GEC/CFIMIH would be a good, and instructive, place to start.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.