Meet the Obama Holdovers Who Survived Trump’s Sweep

Thomas A. Shannon Jr., second from left, who rose to the No. 3 post in the State Department in the Obama administration, welcomed Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, center right, during a ceremony at the department in February. Credit Andrew Harnik/Associated Press WASHINGTON — When President Trump’s new Middle East envoy began haggling over the details of an agreement with Israel to curb construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, they turned to a politically improbable adviser: Yael Lempert, a 43-year-old diplomat who worked on the issue in Barack Obama’s White House. When Mr. Trump met with the leaders of Japan, Britain and Canada, he included Thomas A. Shannon Jr., another career diplomat, who rose to the No. 3 post in Mr. Obama’s State Department. And when Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson traveled to Turkey this past week to rally support for the military campaign against the Islamic State, he took along Brett H. McGurk, who coordinated that effort as Mr. Obama’s special envoy. These diplomats are part of a rare cohort in the Trump administration: holdovers from the Obama years, whose skills, knowledge and bureaucratic finesse have enabled them to survive, even thrive, in an administration determined to purge all vestiges of its predecessor. Anytime there is a change in administrations, career government officials face a tricky transition. But that process has been particularly difficult under Mr. Trump, because of the insurgent nature of his campaign and his deep suspicion of the permanent bureaucracy. Continue reading the main story The Trump White House Stories about President Trump’s administration. Trump Couple, Now White House Employees, Can’t Escape Conflict Laws APR 1 Bannon Made Millions in Shaping Right-Wing Thought MAR 31 Confused by the Trump Surveillance Drama? Here’s a Timeline MAR 31 White House Accepts ‘Political Reality’ of Assad’s Grip on Power in Syria MAR 31 President’s Growing Trade Gap: A Gulf Between Talk and Action MAR 31 See More » While these diplomats have held on through multiple transfers of power in Washington, navigating this new administration poses special challenges. Ms. Lempert has come under fire from people on the Israeli right, who accuse her of continuing to push Mr. Obama’s tough-on-Israel policies. And Mr. Shannon’s ability to get along with Mr. Trump’s inner circle has rankled some in the State Department, which has become a hotbed of dissent against the new president and his policies. “They’re relying on these people for sheer expertise,” said Elliott Abrams, a Republican foreign-policy elder who was briefly considered for the post of deputy secretary of state. “But there is a danger here. You have to make a judgment about whether the career person was so embedded in the previous administration that they need to go immediately.” The status of Obama holdovers remains a source of tension within the National Security Council. Since the inauguration in January, Mr. Trump’s aides have pushed to get rid of many of them, in part because they question whether people who worked for Mr. Obama can be loyal to Mr. Trump. It is unclear whether the new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, is resisting these efforts, though he has made a point of meeting with the career staff. The problem is compounded by severe delays at the White House in filling jobs. So far, it has nominated people for only 43 of 553 key executive branch positions, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. The delays are particularly acute in the national security field, where the White House is confronting crises like the military campaign against the Islamic State. Even before his secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson, was confirmed, Mr. Trump had signed an executive order barring visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries and moved to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The travel ban thrust Mr. Shannon, whose title is under secretary of state for political affairs but who was then serving as acting secretary of state, into an awkward spot. The White House barely consulted the State Department before issuing the order, and it relied on Mr. Shannon to rally his colleagues — many of whom bitterly opposed the order — to enforce it. White House officials, some of whom had expected the State Department to actively undermine the president, said they were surprised by the speed with which it issued instructions to consular offices worldwide. They credit Mr. Shannon, 59, with overseeing that response. “He was a rock” that weekend, said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist. “Really came to the forefront with leadership, judgment and class. Folks think very highly of him.” Mr. Shannon also stood in for Mr. Tillerson in the president’s meetings with Prime Ministers Theresa May of Britain, Shinzo Abe of Japan and Justin Trudeau of Canada. At the news conferences in the East Room after those meetings, he was the lone outsider who sat with Mr. Bannon and other members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. Photo Yael Lempert during a meeting in Cairo in 2014 between Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, far right, and John Kerry, second from right, then the secretary of state. Ms. Lempert is still working for the State Department under President Trump. Credit Pool photo by Carolyn Kaster In all these cases, Mr. Shannon said, he was simply doing his job as a Foreign Service officer. “We take an oath to the Constitution, and that Constitution is all about respect for our laws and for the will of our people,” he said. “We have to respect the decision of the American people.” A 34-year veteran of the Foreign Service, Mr. Shannon served in the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, where he became a favorite of Mr. Bush’s secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. He also served as assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs under Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama, a job in which he won the trust of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I am not the least bit surprised he is one of the last men standing,” said Daniel Restrepo, a former senior director in the National Security Council who worked with Mr. Shannon. “He’s both an effective diplomat and an effective bureaucrat, with an agreeable personality.” Morning Briefing Get what you need to know to start your day in the United States, Canada and the Americas, delivered to your inbox. Enter your email address Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY Arturo Valenzuela, who succeeded him as assistant secretary, noted that Mr. Shannon was a fan of Nascar. That helps give him a common touch, which Mr. Valenzuela said might appeal to the people in Mr. Trump’s circle, even though he has a doctorate in history from Oxford. Certainly, Mr. Shannon has built bridges to Mr. Tillerson, who recently asked him to stay on as under secretary, traditionally the highest-ranking post for a career diplomat. For Ms. Lempert, who has been posted to Jerusalem and advised Mrs. Clinton’s cabinet successor, John Kerry, on his dealings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the appeal to Mr. Trump’s advisers was her experience in the complex, trap-filled world of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Her colleagues say she is well connected on both sides and is viewed as an honest broker (though in Israel, critics fault her for what they say was her role in Mr. Obama’s campaign to pressure Mr. Netanyahu to freeze settlements). As it happens, Mr. Trump — through his special envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt — is now pushing the Israeli leader to slow down construction as well. And Mr. Greenblatt, a lawyer who worked for the Trump Organization and has no experience in Middle East diplomacy, decided to keep Ms. Lempert on to advise him on the ins and outs of that negotiation. Ms. Lempert, who is Jewish and also served in the Bush administration, played a major role in negotiating a $38 billion military aid package for Israel on behalf of the Obama administration. Still, after reports surfaced that Mr. Netanyahu’s aides were suspicious of her involvement in the talks, the prime minister’s office felt obliged to issue a statement saying it had no objection to her. Mr. Greenblatt, in a statement, said, “I have been ably supported by the extremely hard-working officials at the National Security Council (including N.S.C. Senior Director Yael Lempert).” She declined to comment, as did colleagues from the Obama administration. Some said they worried that praise from them would hurt her with her new bosses. A few of Mr. McGurk’s former colleagues demurred from commenting for the same reason. But of all the Obama holdovers, he has had perhaps the smoothest transition. In part, that is because Mr. McGurk, 43, has been working on Iraq and related issues through three administrations. He also clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, which Republicans view as a valuable credential. This past week, he was at Mr. Tillerson’s side in the Turkish capital, Ankara, advising him on the bewildering politics of the 68-member coalition against the Islamic State. The United States plans to use a combined force of Arab and Kurdish forces to mount an assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State stronghold in Syria. But the Turks, who are fighting Kurdish militants at home, are balking because they view the Kurdish units as terrorists. Mr. McGurk organized a recent meeting of coalition members in Washington. In addition to his network of contacts in the region, he has forged close ties to the Pentagon, including to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “By virtue of his experience, he has almost impossible-to-replicate, case-specific knowledge,” said Peter D. Feaver, who worked with Mr. McGurk in the Bush-era National Security Council. “In Brett’s case, he has proven he can be a loyal team player on very different teams.”

German reporters press Trump on wiretap claims, ‘fake news’

Foreign reporters challenged President Trump to address his wiretapping accusation and attacks on the media at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.

 

A German reporter asked Trump whether he regrets claiming that former President Obama bugged Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, provoking Trump to joke about reports that the National Security Agency had once monitored Merkel’s phone under Obama.

 

“As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said with a grin during an otherwise subdued press conference.

 

Trump beat back questions about why the White House had accused Britain’s intelligence agency of having helped Obama surveil Trump Tower, saying press secretary Sean Spicer had merely read aloud a report from a Fox News legal analyst.

 

“We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I did not make an opinion on it,” Trump said. 

 

“That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. So you should not be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”

 

Another German reporter was more aggressive with Trump, asking why he is "so scared of diversity in the news and the media that you speak so often of a ‘fake news’ and that things that in the end cannot be proven, like for the fact that you were wiretapped by Mr. Obama."

 

“Nice, friendly reporter,” Trump said.

 

Rather than respond to that question, Trump answered a question directed at Merkel about whether she believes the president’s "isolationist policy" is “dangerous.”

 

“I don't believe in an isolationist policy,” Trump said. “But I also believe a policy of trade should be a fair policy. The United States has been treated very, very unfairly by many countries over the years, and that is going to stop. I am not an isolationist. I'm a free trader, but I am also a fair trader. … But I am not an isolationist by any stretch of the imagination.”

 

“So I don't know what newspaper you are reading, but I guess that would be another example of, as you say, fake news,” Trump said.

 

American reporter Mark Halperin asked Merkel how she found working with Trump, who he said “has a different style than most.”

“People have different abilities, characteristics, traits of character, origins, they have found their way into politics along different pathways,” Merkel responded. “There is diversity, that is good. Sometimes it is difficult to find compromises, but that is what we have been elected for. If everything just went like that without [a] problem, we would not need politicians to do these jobs.”

Trump has been highly critical of Merkel’s immigration policies, saying that her open-borders policy has led to an immigration crisis in which potentially dangerous people from Middle Eastern countries have failed to assimilate. 

The president’s executive orders temporarily banning immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries — both of which have been swatted down by federal courts — have been among the most controversial of his young presidency.

On Friday, Trump and Merkel said they would work together to combat the threat of terrorism.

“Together we fight against Islamic terrorism,” Merkel said. “Germany is going to step up its work and continue its work and Afghanistan and also in Syria. We are going to monitor the situation very closely, work on political solutions and Syria but also in Libya.”

Trump, who has sent conflicting signals about his support for NATO, declared his “strong support” for the alliance on Friday — but with a caveat.

“I reiterated to chancellor Merkel my strong support for NATO, as well as the need for our allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense,” Trump said.  “Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years. And it is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe.”

Merkel said that Germany intends to ramp up its NATO spending to 2 percent of the nation’s GDP.

The leaders also discussed shared business interests at length. 

Trump praised Germany’s workforce development and vocational training programs and said the U.S. could learn from such programs. 

The leaders indicated that the U.S. and Germany would be negotiating a bilateral trade deal separate from the European Union. Trump said that Germany has benefitted more from trade with the U.S. in the past and that he hopes the two can reach a more mutually beneficial deal going forward.

“Hopefully we can even it out,” Trump said. “We don't want victory. We want fairness. All I want is fairness. Germany has done very well in its trade deals with the United States, and I give them credit for it.”

Merkel called the meetings “a very good first exchange of views.” 

“I can say there are a number of issues where we will continue to cooperate very closely on the level of experts but also on our level,” she said.