Disappearance of a Religious Freedom Advisor

 

Former 3-term Congressman Mark Walker couldn't even hang onto the sinecure (job with no duties) that Trump invented for him as a consolation prize after he ended Walker's political career by endorsing Ted Budd instead of him for the US Senate in 2022 and then squeak-toy Addison McDowell instead of him for Congress in the 2024 Republican primary in the 6th Congressional District. Walker had even trudged to Mar-a-Lago like a good little supplicant and begged Trump to endorse him instead of Ted Budd for Senate and reportedly agreed to drop out and run for a congressional seat if only Trump would endorse him for that. Kissing the ring sucks when it's both fruitless and the boss stinks.

So because of whatever sympathy Trump felt for the man, he invented a title specially for Walker: Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, to be attached to the State Department, a completely made-up job with no defined duties. But appointment to ambassador required Senate approval, and for whatever reasons, both senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd wouldn't support him. The nomination died, and Trump went another route, appointed Walker as "Principal Advisor on Global Religious Freedom" in a wholly invented new position at the State Department. Walker lasted just 90 days. On April 21 (just last week!), the State Department made the terse announcement that Mark Walker no longer worked at the State Department  -- no explanation given.

Walker used to be a pastor of a church and casts a mild aura, though he was tough enough to beat Phil Berger Jr. in his very first Republican primary -- and the subsequent runoff -- for the 6th CD in 2014. The entire Berger Family Machine had been in full gear for Junior, and Berger did indeed beat Walker in the first round: 34.27% to 25.20% (in a very crowded field of seven other candidates). But by the runoff between Berger and Walker in July 2014, Walker had turned it around and he beat young Berger by 20 points -- 59.85% to Berger's 40%. Walker won that runoff by hitting every church picnic and community rag-pulling across the 6th, showing the people what a mild-mannered and approachable Christian he was, a defender of God and American rural values. He was better at grassroots campaigning than Berger, and he sharpened his attack on Berger, implying he was essentially a bought-and-paid for arm of a machine that feathered its own nest -- thus reminding voters of the Berger Family reputation for shady power moves (a reputation that would ultimately end Phil Berger Senior's career after he became a failed promoter of gambling casinos). I suspect Walker beat Phil Berger Jr. at the cost of making an eternal enemy out of Daddy, and I have to wonder if Berger animosity is behind the downward trajectory of Walker's career.  

Anyway, apparently the Trump State Department no longer needs the services of an advisor on global religious freedom.