Shocking no one, President Trump is expected to nominate a right-wing radio host with no experience in agricultural research to run the research division of the Department of Agriculture, according to a report from ProPublica.
Clovis, a devout Trump supporter, is known in Iowa for his conservative radio show "Impact with Sam Clovis" on Sioux City KSCJ. During the 2016 presidential election, he became a confidant of the Trump campaign, advising the candidate on agricultural issues. Clovis was also allegedly responsible for bringing in foreign policy adviser Carter Page, who is currently at the center of the Russia election interference scandal.
While Clovis has a doctorate in public administration from the University of Alabama, he has never taken a graduate course in science, ProPublica reported, which might explain why he is a notorious climate change denier who insists there is insufficient evidence proving global warming.
When articulating Trump's position on climate change in an interview, he said, “Once we get more science, we are going to make decisions,” ProPublica reported. In a 2014 interview, Clovis said global warming "is simply a mechanism for transferring wealth from one group of people to another," New York Daily News reported.
After Trump won the election, Clovis nabbed an influential role in the transition, overseeing the Department of Agriculture to ensure the president-elect's new policies would be properly implemented. But his background in no way suggests that he is qualified to be the Department of Agriculture's chief scientist.
Under the 2008 Farm Bill, according to ProPublica, the agency’s “chief scientist” is to be chosen “from among distinguished scientists with specialized or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics.”
ProPublica's reporting yielded no scientific papers. His 2006 dissertation was on homeland security preparation.
The deconstruction of the administration state continues.
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