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The State Department is offering monetary bonuses to diplomats who demonstrate fidelity to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a diplomatic cable I obtained.

The previously unreported cable, dated August 15, invites supervisors to nominate diplomats and support personnel for cash bonuses when they have “demonstrated fidelity to the Secretary” for cash bonuses under the “Meritorious Service Increase” (MSI) program.

The department’s official manual describing the MSI program makes no mention of “fidelity to the Secretary.” The Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It’s completely novel,” one diplomat told me, that sucking up to Rubio and Trump is what will be officially rewarded.

The cable lists five criteria for MSI salary increases, the first one being loyalty to the Secretary, of course.

Leaked cable

The cable also includes a couple of suggestive complaints from the selection panel about past nominations that I couldn’t help but laugh at.

“Panels in recent years have recommended repeatedly that nominators pay particular attention to spelling and grammar in their nominations and solicit help from others to read over the nomination before submitting …,” a section titled “PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS” reads.

“The panels also conveyed that nominators should be honest and specific … Some found certain nominations unrealistic in crediting individual nominees as single-handedly responsible for a wide-ranging foreign policy achievements.”

The new criteria have rankled State Department employees, who regard it as political patronage, the diplomat told me.

“Even the MAGA folks caught a few strays in the purge a few weeks back because of how unartful this all is, but changing the DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] precept to ‘Fidelity’ and then tying it to the person of the Secretary himself will make official the possibility of rewarding their own monetarily and elevating them,” he said.”

So much for “America First.”

That Marco Rubio is synonymous with “the mission,” as the cable says, is characteristic of government messaging these days, where Donald Trump is also offered big brother style.

The examples are endless but one I can’t seem to get out of my head is the video posted to social media this week showing four federal agents walking up to a black man smoking in front of his house. They accuse the man of smoking weed before apologizing.

“I didn’t realize it was just a cigarette,” one of the agents says, adding: “Don’t be smoking outside, don’t be drinking outside, because Donald Trump’s tired of it.”

Not because it violates some ordinance or because it’s bad for kids or whatever. Donald Trump doesn’t like it.

I’ve included a copy of diplomatic cable in full below.

Diplomatic cable9.21MB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownload

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— Edited by William M. Arkin

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