One of the most interestingly dumb and blessedly low-key early steps of the Donald Trump administration involved a man named Matthew Whitaker. In 2018, when Trump finally got former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to resign as attorney general—Sessions had authorized an investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, which made Trump mad—the highly inept Whitaker replaced Sessions as the third AG. zany months. It was a race King Ralph situation but at the Department of Justice, up to Whitaker and John Goodman who were both solid football players in their younger days.
However, Trump has now nominated Whitaker to be the US ambassador to NATO, a role he is not qualified for.
Whitaker served as the US attorney in Iowa from 2004 to 2009, but he is most famous for the work he did from 2014 to 2017 at a company called “World Patent Marketing.” The company charged would-be inventors thousands of dollars for services such as “Global Invention Royalty Analysis” which was supposed to help them monetize their ideas; The Federal Trade Commission, however, charged that its advertising was deceptive and that it did not do a proper job on behalf of its customers. In 2018 a federal judge ordered the company to pay $26 million in damages while permanently barring its founder – who was based, of course, in Florida – from selling services to developers. (You can read more about this in the Miami New Times.)
Whitaker acted as World Patent Marketing’s “consultant” and once told a disgruntled customer that there could be “liability” against him if he complained about the online company, but he was never charged with wrongdoing in this matter. Here you can see him demonstrating the innovative thermal technology that the company was said to have pioneered:
As was widely noted during the appointment of Whitaker’s DOJ, the 2014 World Patent Marketing announced a relationship with a company that also announced that it will be marketing a so-called “male toilet” designed for men with a large-than. – genitalia.
So, Whitaker, an attorney at law, served as attorney general for three months before being replaced by William Barr. (He was first brought in as Sessions’ chief of staff, by the way, because Trump had seen him criticize the Mueller investigation on CNN.) After that, he joined a political group and worked with a Kansas City law enforcement agency. firm. (His biography on its website does not mention his tenure with World Patent Marketing.) He is also affiliated with the MAGA think tank America First Policy Institute, where he co-chairs the “law and justice” program.
Whitaker does not appear to have any foreign policy or military experience that would be relevant to his new role with NATO. By comparison, the woman who served as NATO ambassador for most of Joe Biden’s tenure was a former adviser to the secretary of state, a member of the national security department, a contributor to Foreign Policy magazine, and the director of Europe and NATO. policy at the Department of Defense.
Whitaker’s lack of credentials, shared by most if not all Trump 2.0 nominees, can be cited in this case, given that the president-elect has often complained that US commitments to NATO are a waste of money and has supported the authorization policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin does whatever he wants with Eastern Europe.
And, famously, Europe has some of the most unique toilet designs going on. In Amsterdam a few years back, after my friends and I drank “real tea,” I ended up—uh, actually, let’s save that for another time. Welcome back, Matthew Whitaker!