President Biden has turned around yet another of Donald Trump’s disasters

| 8:00 pm EST February 8, 2024
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Through purges, prolonged vacancies, negligence, demoralization, and more, Donald Trump decimated the State Department. As has been well documented, even early in the Trump administration, Secretaries Rex Tillerson and then Mike Pompeo strove to weaken the Department, hurting America while leaving another colossal mess for President Joe Biden to clean up.

Within a couple of weeks after his inauguration, on February 4, 2021, Biden took bold action by signing the National Security Memorandum on Revitalizing America’s Foreign Policy and National Security Workforce, Institutions, and Partnerships (NSM-3). Reaching beyond just the State Department, NSM-3 took a multi-prong approach toward the “revitalization of our national security and foreign policy institutions,” which it declared to be “essential to advancing America’s security, prosperity, and values, accelerating our domestic renewal, and delivering results for all Americans.”

In addition to taking concrete steps such as the creation of an Interagency Working Group on the National Security Workforce, NSM-3 aimed to rebuild the parts of the federal government that had been decimated under Trump by adhering to the core principles of integrity; transparency; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; modernization; service; and accountability. As Biden explained at the time, “Meeting these challenges will require an unprecedented mobilization of public service.”

Three years later, the Biden administration is now reporting on the success across federal agencies driven by NSM-3. According to a new fact sheet, “tremendous achievements” are the result of several ongoing initiatives to “revitalize and strengthen” America’s critical workforce. From establishing new fellowships and internships and a new Retention Unit at the State Department, to supporting family members and military-connected families overseas, offering skills-incentive pay, shortening hiring times, and improving access and inclusion for people with disabilities, NSM-3 has succeeded in reversing course from the damaging Trump years.

This triumph is further proof of the Biden administration’s competence and commitment to making America great again in meaningful ways. By contrast, Trump has shown he is all about flooding the airwaves with an empty, demagogic slogan while aiming a wrecking ball at the country. A vote for Biden this November sends a needed message that the United States must keep moving forward.