“Disgruntled” State Department Employee Changes Trump’s Term End Date To Jan. 11

Photo via U.S. State Department, U.S. Air Force

January 11, 2021, 2:13 pm*

People were confused and more than a bit curious today when they noticed that Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s biographies on the State Department website had been changed to say that their terms had ended on Monday, January 11.

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After a round of hopeful speculation that the president and vice president had decided to resign, two diplomats reportedly told BuzzFeed that the change had been made by a “disgruntled” state department employee.

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BuzzFeed correspondent Christopher Miller seemed to be among the first to notice the change on the State Department’s site and tagged the department asking what was going on.

The diplomats who blamed an angry staffer have remained anonymous, but the idea that someone could be fed up enough with Trump to do such a thing is certainly believable.

According to the sources, a lot of State Department employees have access to the site’s content management system and so it will not be easy to find out who did the thing, though an investigation has already been launched by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It’s unlikely that the change was made by anyone outside of the department due to its high level of security against hacking.

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State Department staffers are also definitely disgruntled right now, as dozens of diplomats have signed two separate dissent cables against the Trump administration following the assault on the Capitol last week. The first condemned Trump for inciting the attack, and the second went after Pompeo, accusing him of issuing a weak response to the events that only called the riot “unacceptable” without even mentioning the outgoing president.

Barring impeachment or another form of removal, both Trump and Pence will exit the White House on January 20 after Joe Biden is officially inaugurated. As we all tensely await that moment, enjoy a few memes that have popped up around the State Department website disgruntling:

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Really excited for my first day as webmaster for the US State Department. Now to take a big sip of coffee and see what everybody is talking about

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) January 11, 2021

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Even if it’s a hack, love the vision boarding going on at the state department right now.

— Storm’s Twist Out (@Danez_Smif) January 11, 2021

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*First Published: January 11, 2021, 2:03 pm