“In terms of political team building,
Trump tends to choose people who can
enhance the stage effect.”
Recently, US President Trump has been quite busy. He first met with Russian President Putin and then received a group of European leaders at the White House.
Beside him, a blonde woman frequently appears in public. She not only welcomed Putin in Alaska but also received European dignitaries on the South Lawn of the White House.
She is called Monica Crowley, who has served as the Director of Protocol at the US Department of State since May this year, responsible for diplomatic etiquette and event arrangements.
On August 15th local time, Crowley shook hands with Putin at the airport and bid farewell, and Putin smiled at her.
However, when Crowley frequently appeared in public, an incident occurred during the “Putin-Trump Meeting”.
At the White House, Crowley plays the role of “general director” for diplomatic activities.
According to the official information of the US Department of State, the Protocol Office needs to formulate a detailed event plan that is “accurate to the minute” for diplomatic activities, from meeting schedule, state guesthouse management, to beverage selection, scene layout, etc. The director of protocol needs to ensure that every event is carried out in an orderly manner, “reflecting the level of American diplomacy and policy goals”. It is understood that the director of protocol has the level of senior ambassador, and their appointment needs to be approved by the US Senate.
On August 18th local time, Crowley (right) with Ukrainian President Zelensky.
During the “Putin-Trump Meeting”, the protocol team led by Crowley not only had to take the lead in welcoming Putin on behalf of foreign affairs, but also had to do post-event follow-up work, including confirming all expenses.
However, Crowley who arranged the work in front of the stage clearly made a big mistake in confidentiality work.
According to reports from National Public Radio and other media outlets, at 9 am on the day of the “Putin-Trump Meeting”, three ordinary hotel guests found eight pages of confidential documents in a public copy machine at the Captain Cook Hotel where the US and Russian delegations stayed. The New York Times and other media outlets later confirmed that the document came from Crowley’s protocol team.
The leaked document shows the agenda and lunch menu of the “Putin-Trump Meeting”.
This leaked document is extremely detailed, almost like a “script” for the entire process of the “Putin-Trump Meeting”: it not only includes minute-by-minute agenda arrangements but also shows detailed information on 13 core personnel, including three mobile phone numbers, conference room numbers and their purposes, security routes and personnel arrangements, general directions of dialogue, and even every dish on the lunch menu.
At that time, the hotel only hosted members of the US-Russia delegation, while other conference personnel were arranged to stay in other accommodations in the city. Therefore, the only possible reason for the document leak was that a member of the Crowley team left it in the printer.
Crowley (image data).
Just three months after taking office, a problem with security emerged, making Crowley the target of criticism immediately, and also questioning the Trump administration’s existence of a “systematic security vulnerability”.
Jon Michaels, a law professor at UCLA and national security expert, criticized, “This once again proves the negligence and incompetence of this (Trump) administration. It’s as simple as not being able to leave things in the printer.”
However, in response to external criticism, the White House downplayed the issue: “It’s ridiculous for National Public Radio to report a multi-page lunch menu as a ‘security vulnerability’.”
She is not only a renowned news commentator but also a popular book author. Despite the recent mishap, Crowley is still a red-hot diplomat in the White House. Her journey to her current position can be traced back to her political mentor – former US President Richard Nixon.
Born in the United States but with Polish roots, Crowley was 18 when she enrolled in Colgate University, renowned for its liberal arts education in 1986.
During her time at university, she did something unexpected: she took the initiative to write to Nixon, who had just stepped down from office. Nixon not only replied to her letter but also noticed her talent through their correspondence.
In the 1990s, Crowley also visited her “home” in Warsaw, Poland.
In 1990, Nixon publicly recruited a research assistant. Freshly graduated from university, Crowley hesitated no more than applying and was successfully hired as Nixon’s foreign policy assistant.
Crowley spent four years by Nixon’s side until his death in 1994. She assisted Nixon in writing speeches, organizing research materials, and participated in completing Nixon’s last two books before his death.
After Nixon’s death, Crowley wrote two books herself: “Nixon in Winter” and “Unpublished Nixon”, reminiscing about her years working by Nixon’s side. In her books, she described those days as “the greatest adventure of my life”.
In the 1990s, Crowley (center) with Nixon (left) and former US President Reagan.
Later, Crowley began writing for mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, gradually gaining fame in political circles.
In 1996, Crowley joined the newly established Fox News Channel as a political and international affairs commentator. During her years at Fox, she not only appeared on television frequently, but also had her own national broadcast program, “The Monica Crowley Show,” in 2002. She gradually became a renowned news personality in conservative media and caught the attention of Trump.
Subsequently, Crowley started her own blog and occasionally criticized the Democratic Party. When Trump questioned Obama’s birthplace, she echoed his claims in her blog, mentioning Obama’s full name (Barack Hussein Obama) at his swearing-in ceremony, implying his Islamic background. “Can he really be loyal to both Islam and the United States?” she wrote in her comments.
In 2016, when Trump was about to win the U.S. presidential election, Crowley’s support for him became increasingly evident. She commented on Fox News that “this (Trump’s victory) is a counterattack by unprotected ordinary people against protected elite.”
In December of that year, before officially taking office as president, Trump announced the appointment of Crowley as the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at the National Security Council, responsible for formulating external communication strategies for the NSC.
However, just as Crowley was preparing to take up her new position, on January 7, 2017, The Politico, one of the media that must-read in Washington political circles, suddenly revealed that her published book “What Hell?” had a lot of plagiarism issues. Subsequently, the media questioned her PhD degree from Columbia University, claiming that her dissertation had 32 instances of plagiarism.
At that time, with less than two weeks before Trump’s official inauguration and in the final sprint of personnel arrangements for the new administration, Crowley was caught in a “plagiarism scandal”. She had to announce her resignation and later claimed it was a “political attack” in interviews.
Columbia University conducted an investigation into the matter for more than two years. In December 2019, the university announced the results of the investigation, stating that Crowley’s dissertation indeed had “local plagiarism,” but it did not constitute “academic misconduct,” and required her to revise her 493-page dissertation.
This incident had a significant impact on Crowley’s reputation. However, Trump clearly did not lose confidence in her. In July 2019, she was appointed by Trump as the Assistant Secretary and Chief Spokesperson of the Department of Treasury.
Last December, when Trump began his second term, he nominated Crowley as the Director-General of Protocol.
Trump praised her for her “outstanding performance” and specifically mentioned that she is a popular book author.
Trump’s “Blond Assistant Team”
When talking about Crowley, we cannot help but mention Trump’s “Blond Assistant Team”. In his second term, Trump appointed many blonde women to hold important positions in the White House.
Among them, Caroline Levitt, born in 1997, is the youngest press secretary in the history of the White House and a loyal supporter of Trump. When Trump was attacked during a campaign event last year, she returned to work less than four days after giving birth. Trump has repeatedly praised her in public as “the greatest press secretary in history” and described her as “a machine gun with lips.” (See “How tough is the ‘Queen of Tough Talk’ after returning to work just four days after childbirth?”)
Caroline Levitt (image source)
Margo Martin, 30 years old, has served as Trump’s special communications assistant, also known as the “personal photographer,” since January this year. She is responsible for taking photos and releasing behind-the-scenes content at major events.
Due to her proximity to Trump, Martin is able to publish content on social platforms faster than mainstream media outlets, and her lively content has gained her a large number of fans among Trump supporters.
Margo Martin with Trump.
Natalie Haf, a 34-year-old White House assistant, is nicknamed the “human printer”: she follows Trump around all day long, ready to print positive online reports about him at any time. In addition, she is Trump’s “digital avatar,” responsible for managing his social media accounts. Whenever Trump dictates content, she will organize it into text using a laptop and publish it after confirmation with Trump. According to the Washington Post, Trump posted 2,262 posts on his Truth Social account in the first 132 days after taking office, with most of them written by Haf.
Natalie Haf (image source)
Zhao Zhengyuan, an associate professor at the Humanities College of Southeast University, told Global People Weekly: “Trump has always been attentive to the packaging of his external image when running his entertainment and real estate business. In building his political team, he also tends to choose people who can enhance his stage presence. Therefore, on positions that often appear in front of media cameras, he often arranges young women who meet the so-called mainstream American aesthetics.”
Some believe that these White House officials not only help Trump complete his work but also shape a young, dynamic, and modern image for his government.
Zhao Zhengyuan said, “It can be said that these personnel are not just executing public relations tasks, but have become a part of Trump’s team’s political performance. Their appearance and temperament are used as symbols to convey the political image of ‘America First’.”