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New Values-Based Recruiting for State Department
Andrew Crapuchettes is a man with a mission. He wants to bring patriotic values to government employment recruiting, and, he wants to personally help implement Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s mandate to reform the Department of State to better represent those values abroad long past the end of the Trump/Vance/Rubio administrations. Can he do it?
Crapuchettes earlier this spring received an almost one million dollar contract to act as a recruiter for the Department of State for new Foreign Service Officers (FSOs). He intends to implement this contract for finding America’s next generation of diplomats via his existing employment search websites, RedBalloon and Military Hire. When he talks about values-based recruiting, Crapuchettes pulls no punches about what his intention for State is, saying a lot of State’s “recruiting was focused on DEI. It was focused on trying to get in the guy with a PhD in black dance, rather than people who can actually do a good job.” He promises future recruits that “all of a sudden you’re in a position where you can have a huge influence for the rest of your life on the U.S. government.” He even sat for an interview with podcast CrossPolitic titled “Could 1,000 Employees Change the State Department Forever?”
The promised changes are in line with broader directives from President Trump and Secretary Rubio. In March 2025 Trump signed a memorandum directing the Secretary of State to remove “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” (DEIA) as a Core Precept that under Biden controlled Foreign Service promotions. Supervisors under Biden were required to list specific DEIA accomplishments for each diplomat on his yearly job evaluation. The Trump memo further directed State not base Foreign Service recruitment and hiring on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, nor embed discriminatory equity ideology within any element of the Foreign Service. Rubio was quick to act, firing some 1,300 State Department employees, including 246 Foreign Service Officers, and recalling many then-ambassadors seen as opposed to Trump’s foreign policy. Rubio wrote about the restructuring that “motivated and creative State Department employees see their ideas watered down by turf battles until they give up… While the talented and loyal are driven into indifference. Radical ideologues and bureaucratic infighters have learned to play on this exhaustion to push through their own agendas that are often at odds with those of the president and undermine the interests of the United States.”
Some of the first concrete steps to dismantle DEIA and chip away at State’s culture Rubio took after the initial firings already concerned recruitment; new officers offer a faster way to reshape institutional culture than attempting to change the outlook of an entrenched workforce. Rubio suspended the Charles Rangel and Thomas Pickering Fellowships. Both existed to provide an alternative pathway into the Foreign Service with benefits not available through the standard hiring process, with a focus on increasing representation of underrepresented groups. The programs were administered through Howard University, a historically black institution, and the recruited Fellows were estimated to be 80 percent black, multi-racial or Hispanic. Rubio also did away with diplomats in residence (DIR), a program designed to reach populations with lower percentages in the Foreign Service than their share of the general population. Many DIRs were based at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Today, almost everyone who enters State as an FSO must now pass the same rigorous vetting, leveling the playing racial field.
A look at Crapuchettes’ current job employment websites at RedBalloon and Military Hire offers some clues to how State’s FSO recruitment may work in the near future. The sites advise all employers must pledge to honor free speech and medical privacy, something that may challenge State with its complex restrictions on FSOs appearing on TV and even in social media. RedBalloon itself states it seeks “motivated job seekers who value freedom, hard work, and merit-based recognition, and employers that respect their constitutional rights and provide a positive workplace where merit and achievement are honored.” MilitaryHire is much the same, but leans more heavily toward matching former military members with technical skills with businesses working alongside government. Crapuchettes is unabashedly Christian (this is of course what the MSM seized upon).
Browsing Crapuchettes’ employment sites shows they currently recruit for ICE and the Border Patrol. Some advertisements seek people who have or who will qualify for security clearances to work at Northern Virginia locations such as McLean, which may or may not be affiliated with the Intelligence Community or its network of contractors. One such ad is looking for people with proven lockpicking skills. Most other employers in the Washington, DC area appear to be well-known conservative or right-of-center groups and NGOs.
It is clear, in line with Rubio’s other changes, the change in recruiting venue is part of an all-out effort to radically change the culture of the State Department. Its last radical change, actually more of a lateral move, was during the Obama and Biden eras, especially under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Democrats expanded the traditional conception of diplomacy to include advocacy on LGBT rights, women’s rights, labor issues, and other social justice policy priorities. Critics argued recruitment favored applicants from elite universities and applicants who shared prevailing progressive assumptions within the foreign policy establishment. It is consistent with this former pseudo-ideological strategy that the new recruitment emphasis fits with the Trump administration’s own approach to foreign affairs.
Trump in his first term talked a good game about State Department reform, but he chose weak Secretaries of State who never understood they needed to affect change at all levels to alter State’s broader culture. The rank and file in an almost feral way understood this and stymied initiatives, slow-walked paper, and resisted initiatives until the changemakers ran out of time and likely interest. State successfully waited out its opponents in the first Trump administration because it did not believe it represents the Executive or even an America which it did not support politically. State instead had its own version of what the world really needs.
Things may be different now, as a growing cohort of conservative thinkers that will outlast Trump has come out of the closet inside State for the first time. Rubio’s changes reach into the hereto untouched recruitment, training, and promotion processes, the systems that shape institutional culture over the long run. Whether these reforms endure past the next Republican president is the central question. Personnel policies can be quickly reversed by future administrations. Rubio appears to be betting that changing who enters the Foreign Service will prove more durable than changing those already inside it.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Rich Bauer said...
1Donnie Dementia has no interest in diplomacy. DD would turn C St into a parking lot. Of course his disaster in Iran is the predictable result of THIS stupidity. The guy is a cornered rat, willing to walk away from his mess like the shit in his diaper. The Wall Street Journal reported that MAGA MORON privately floated the idea of dropping nuclear conditions with Iran’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping a key condition. DD has been weighing the possibility of declaring victory against Iran without achieving a nuclear deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US officials.
Face it, the senile old fool has no energy to stay awake. Diplomacy is way over his senile capacity.
08/11/26 7:58 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2Donnie Dementia Impeachment Charge No. 88
The draft dodger coward took another flight after the intelligence community warned him the Iranians were gunning for AF1. DD never warned the passengers on AF1 they were a hard target. Big problem for the DD coward:
DD and the government had a “duty to warn” others who were put at risk by the Trump administration.
CIA spook spoke:
“In this case, you really look, it looks like that Air Force One, the original Air Force One, was at some risk and the secretary of state assumingly knew this, but the press corps and other members of the staff did not,” he explained. “And so I think the American people deserve to know how this decision-making process evolved,” he suggested. “And first of all — or just to kind of bookend President Trump’s remarks there about the alternate aircraft being at greater risk — I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
Maybe because it’s BS. But the coward only cares about himself.
08/12/26 1:48 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Donnie Dementia Impeachment Charge No. 89
THE INTERCEPT and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump and his staff Wednesday, challenging a Trump-owned media company’s plan to monetize the president’s social media posts.
The lawsuit is in response to a scheme announced last month by the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social platform to charge as much as $100,000 per month for early access to the president’s posts.
By offering preferred access to presidential missives, the monetization plan, dubbed “Truth API,” would violate the First Amendment rights of journalists and other members of the public to equal access to official information, the lawsuit argues, while allowing Trump to trade his public statements for cold hard cash.
08/12/26 1:50 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Love it or Leavitt
The rats are jumping off the Trump Titanic. Yeah, Machine Gun Lips Leavitt just had a kid and wants to spend time at home. But then there is only room for one blonde bimbo in the White Mans House. I am betting Leavitt decided to leave instead of taking a chance on AF1 if the Iranians decide to reach out.
08/12/26 6:04 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5Donnie Dementia Future Died in The Dead Zone
The draft dodger coward hid behind the passengers on AF1 as he slipped out the back. Even Greg Stillson in the Dead Zone wouldn’t be such a coward. Things ended badly for him. Ditto DD.
MAGA already had doubts about the orange Clown strongman they voted into the White Mans House. This cowardly act only weakens their belief they can trust the POS not to sell them out to save himself.
08/13/26 9:26 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6Donnie Dementia following Lying Leaving Leavitt out the door?
Now that Machine Gun Lips has left the White House there are rumors Donnie Dementia will be leaving soon to spend time with his latest blonde bimbo.
The only Harp this guy will touch.
08/13/26 9:58 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7Everything the AntiMidas touches turns to shit
During the past five years the odds are anyone one could have money just throwing a dart on a page of stock exchange listings. During that time Donnie’s stock went from $94 to $8. The loser streak is still intact.
08/14/26 12:26 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
8The Wizard of Oddity Speaks
If you haven’t heard the latest lunacy from the WIZARD OF ODDITY, Donnie Dementia now claims ownership of the Strait of Hormuz after some advisor told him “if you break it…”. This follows his statement that sailors suffering on long deployments haven’t suffered enough. This follows his statement that higher gas prices are something worth enduring for eliminating the Iran nuclear program, which he stated wasn’t worth negotiating as “it was completely obliterated many times.”
Normally, this moron would have been impeached, but the Republican munchkins live in great fear of the Wizard of Oddity.
08/14/26 6:41 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9MAGA MORONS ARE GETTING APATHETIC
Unless the Dumbocrats stupidly run a Harris-Clinton ticket, things are looking grim for MAGA in 2028. Couch potato JD and little Marco are not getting the MAGA morons excited. They want something new to distract them from the epic fiasco Donnie Dementia shit the bed.
The clearest signs of MAGA apathy are the missing Donnie Dementia lawn signs and DD red hats. Dementia merch stores are disappearing. Nobody wants to be associated with the obese loser anymore. Unfortunately for them there is no replacement for fat boy.
In fairness, give DD credit for destroying the endless war fixation this dumbass country has had. Nobody gives a shit about Amerika the great superpower. It is now a joke. Its word is worthless.
Let US hope MAGA apathy is a permanent condition. Stay home. Don’t vote. The world is better off.
08/17/26 8:36 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
10Iran placing Tariff on Strait of Iran
Donnie Dementia ain’t the only one who can place tariffs on trade. Iran is justified in placing one on the Strait of Iran, just as a Norway and Turkey do- calling it a security fee wink wink. The fee could be has high as 5 percent of the cargo value. Donnie should be totally cool with this. This was all his idea.
08/17/26 9:16 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11DD Day is coming – his approval poll is 33% and dropping
The only thing going down lower on Donnie Dementia is Ms Harp.
08/17/26 7:29 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12Diplomacy not allowed in a corrupt US
Even American Conservative has to admit it:
We watch with horror the chaos, death, and destruction currently being wreaked on the world—and on our own country—by our “exceptional nation.” Why has the second Trump administration bombed at least seven countries and engaged in underhanded efforts to weaken and harm the political systems of others? None of this serves the interests of the American people; it serves only the special interests of our elites. All this from a president who campaigned on an America First policy, an end to forever wars, and the promotion of peace. It looks like we were fooled again. Presidential candidate after presidential candidate promises peace, and we get war after war. The system is subverted by corruption.
08/19/26 3:13 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
13Donnie Dementia and the Giant Impeachment
Repugs are certain they can hold the Senate in November and avoid Demented’s impeachment, which was never going to happen as it requires two thirds vote to convict. But that isn’t the Dumbocrat plan. They want the old senile geezer to stick around so they can take several swipes at the Orange piñata. They have at least three strong charges to make the dumbass Amerikan voters remember their stupid decision to vote for this POS. The fat freak will want to slither out with his blonde bimbo, as the Democrat House will make his declining years in office an endless shit sandwich and every day a bite. The months of hearings will tar JD or Little Marco in 2028 by association with the pervert’s crimes. Demented wants to put his name on everything. Rikers Island is available.
08/20/26 8:08 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
14DD GETS F for failing his term
F- Military STRATEGY 101
F- Basic Economics
F- Diplomacy 101
F- Constitutional Law
F- ICE Skating
F- Human Relations
F- Ballroom Dancing
08/23/26 11:12 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15Harp her Bizarre
MAGA got their undies in a twist just because some Georgia politician had the indecency to suggest Donnie Dementia was screwing the hired help. Strange that the murder of 150 little Iranian girls by HeadUpHis Ass didn’t bother them a hoot.
Harp may or may not be Stupid Hitler’s version of Eva Braun. His fatal attraction could end in a sordid ending in his ballroom bunker. They say Harp has a daddy fixation with Demented. Harp’s father committed suicide in 2020.
08/23/26 9:15 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16Dancing in the dark
The whole pathetic “ I need the ballroom because I need a nuke security bunker beneath it” is a red herring. Donnie Dementia already has a nuke security bunker under the White House. It was built after 9-11.
08/24/26 9:27 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17MAGA may feel bad having to pay over $4 for gas, but they can feel happy that Donnie Dementia made $15,000,000 on his oil company stock trades.
08/24/26 5:20 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18Stupid Hitler sends his son-in-law like Rudy Hess to seek peace
Strange how history tends to repeat. The Blue wave invasion is about to crush Stupid Hitler Demented Donnie. Fearing a lost cause this November, Demented Donnie sent Jared to talk peace with Jeffries. Of course, the MAGA NAZIS will be outraged DD is selling them out. Stupid Hitler will sacrifice Jared, saying he had no idea his Rudy Hess would do such a thing.
When the truth is revealed, both of these war criminals end in prison.
08/25/26 12:01 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19MAGA Strongman has no balls
It is FINALLY dawning on the low-information MAGGOTS that Donnie Dementia is not only losing the few brain cells he has left but ALSO his balls. TACO TUESDAY surrenders faster than STORMY Daniels.
DD is afraid to antagonize China over Iran, mysteriously leaving them off HIS latest tariff tax. Picks on Canada. HeadUpHisAss just shot his balls off depleting the missile interceptor cupboard. THERE IS NO MILITARY SOLUTION TO IRAN. SENDING IN TROOPS IS A DEATH SENTENCE TO THE REPUG Party.
Face facts, Donnie has No balls. Like Natalie Harp, MAGGOTS need a strongman to relieve their emotional trauma. Watching this clown poop his pants ain’t gonna help.
08/25/26 9:17 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
20Donnie Dimwit honors Dolly Parton
“She really liked me”…why not.
The malignant narcissist thinks he is the center of the universe.
The sick fuck is just a black hole.
08/26/26 4:52 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
21State Dept Bombs Away Diplomacy
The CIA Director just flew to Moscow to beg Russia not to use tactical nukes on Ukraine. The Russkies threatened to use a tactical nuke in 2024, but Biden diplomacy got China and India to tell Putin it was game over if he did. Now that Donnie Dimwit has alienated the world with his bombs away diplomacy, Putin has less reason to listen. Plus, the US military is out of interceptor missiles thanks to HeadUpHisAss. Can’t imagine what Strongman Donnie is gonna do to stop Putin. He may need that nuke bunker ballroom sooner than he planned.
08/26/26 7:30 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
22Trump: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!!!!
You just knew the end would come when Donnie Dimwit would pull out the Repug Playbook and declare the war was over – MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!
So let US review the results:
Gas prices over $4.
Raise inflation, cripple the bond market.
Raise the national debt.
Destroy 15 US bases.
Make the world aware the US is a paper tiger. Superpower?
Threaten national security by depleting its missile interceptor supply.
Dimwit’s claim of victory comes without any apparent movement on key war aims he set out, like permanently ending Iran’s nuclear program, preventing Tehran from attacking neighbors and funding terror proxy groups. DD vowed to engineer regime change but Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, took power after his father’s killing and the regime appears little changed and more firmly entrenched in power than ever.
What DD accomplished: kill MAGA. November and winter is coming.
The white nationalist walkers are walking back to their shit hole states.
Trump himself is badly underwater in polls, with less than 33% of the American voters approving of his performance in the White House, raising the question if he will drag down congressional Republicans to defeat.
I always suspected Donnie was in the employ of Putin. One could argue he is also in the employ of George Soros.
08/27/26 10:08 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
23President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the USA as Stupid Hitlerville. This follow Donnie Dimwit’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.
08/27/26 2:19 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
24Fear and Loathing Donnie Dementia
The senile fool has been playing MAGGOTS for fools using the fear card. Now fear has overtaken the senile fool. His own pollsters are giving him the bad news they fear the House will flip Dem. Even states the old fool carried in 2024 like Pennsy are in play in 2028. Polls in PA indicate only 25% still believe his lies…and those Repug idiots usually believe anything. See the epicenter of measles in PA.
The Iran War is not going away. The Epstein Files fiasco is not going away. The increased gasoline prices are not going away.
Be very afraid, Donnie.
“No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
08/28/26 9:14 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
25Thrown into the burning lake
Donnie Dementia needs ways to look tough that won’t cost MAGGOTS anything, and erasing the word “Ontario” from the Great Lakes is ‘zero-calorie nationalism — unappetizing, unsatisfying, but chauvinistically nourishing with little downside. Only a pathetic and ignorant Maggots would have fallen for what DD sells, and only a really pathetic and really ignorant people would have fallen for it twice. Say what you will about this POS, don’t ever say that he hasn’t delivered what these morons voted for.
08/29/26 5:31 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
26Repug losing the House when the Housing Market crashes
Mortgage rates are heading higher. New homebuyers are already taxed to afford the mortgage payment. If Donnie Dimwit and his Treasury goon don’t do something quick, gasoline prices won’t be the only reason for voters to flip the House.
09/1/26 8:35 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
27MAGA MIND WHEN THEY HAVE TO PAY
MSM complains MAGA are low-information voters or willfully ignorant about issues. That may be true until that issue costs their pocketbooks. Today it is the beef industry getting burnt by cheap foreign beef thanks to Don Dimwit. Maine and New York voters are getting frozen out of Canada business thanks to Don Dimwit. Homebuyers won’t be able to afford mortgages thanks to Don Dimwit.
That is the core characteristic of MAGA: Screw others, I want mine.
When they can’t ignore Dimwit Policies are costing them, then they will simply tell Repug politicos, “screw them.”
09/1/26 11:31 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
28Don Dementia is sitting on $400 million in his PAC. To date he has shown no interest in using that bankroll to support Repugs in the midterms. Why not?
Spoiler: DD knows the Dems will win the House. He has stated that repeatedly. Why should he spend HIS MONEY on a bunch of losers? DD has already started divorce proceedings by claiming voters are angry at Repugs, as if he has nothing to do with the Repugs.
Even poor Peter has to admit the Trump Titanic is going down. The captain is jumping ship. Machine Gun Lips Leavitt left before him. Expect HeadUpHisAss to leave. The tattoo freak is already running for 2028. Couch potato JD will be left to pardon Don Dimwit. He will be going down with the ship. Others are leaving. Peter Thiel bought a house in Argentine, where all Nazis retire. Steve Goebbels Miller should get out while he can.
Meanwhile, DD’s war on the eastern front is looking like total defeat.
“The war was being run by a bunch of four star clowns who were gonna end up giving the whole circus away.” —-Apocalypse Now
09/2/26 10:58 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
29Prezidunce Plump’s Heart Isn’t in It
Prezidunce Plump just wants to forget the Iran Epic Fiasco that Nuttyyahoo talked him into disaster. The senile fool is self-soothing his anxiety away at night by downing junk food. He has gained 20 pounds. His doctors are giving him IV treatments to stop his fatty heart from doing the standing broad jump out of his chest.
November midterms will deliver the knockout, not just in flipping the House but also Prezidunce Plump’s failing health. Just the threat of Raskin initiating impeachment hearings in January will be enough for the obese goon to tap out. His heart just isn’t in it.
09/3/26 4:26 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
30Couch Potato Vance says it ain’t a war…just an excursion
Imagine what CP boy would call it if Iran decapitated the Trump Administration.
09/3/26 6:21 PM | Comment Link