Probationary UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik Gets “Fork In the Road” Notice
Photo by Artaxerxes, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Like thousands of others who work in government over the last few months, Elise Stefanik saw her probationary period for higher employment end on the whims of the Trump Administration. There was a farewell tour, congressional career retrospective running on her social media accounts, glow up, and even sitting with Stefanik’s presumed new colleagues and cohorts in the cabinet during President Trump’s address to a joint session of congress. For the super ambitious Stefanik, who turned from the path of Ivy League & New York political bona fides to jump on the MAGA train, to be tripped up by thin congressional margins and an intemperate Trump Team was not on her pathway to success itinerary. She wasn’t fired; no, that would be wrong, don’t you dare put in the paper she was fired, or disappointed, or in any way mad. She simply came to a fork in the road, you see.
Now, instead of being seated with the cabinet for the next Trump address to congress, Representative Stefanik will be but one of the 435. Instead of hobnobbing with the hierarchy of world leaders in Turtle Bay, not-Ambassador Stefanik will be dealing with a messy reconciliation project that is on a tight deadline, the thin-majority that requires her continued presence, and the looming midterm elections. But there is always the hope that the churn that is inevitable in any administration might open up a cabinet spot later on for a lame-duck president. For now, she joins Matt Gaetz on the flowchart of nominations that never were, but unlike Gaetz was smart enough to not resign the old job until the new job was finalized.
So, always look on the bright side of life, Elise Stefanik, as DOGE has been telling thousands upon thousands of fired, not fired, no now fired federal employees: it is all for the greater good, or something.
For his part, President Trump posted the quiet part out loud on his truth social, reportedly before explaining it to Rep. Stefanik herself who was scrambling to change his mind:
Parsing through Trumpspeak is always an iffy proposition but a few things are clear from the President’s own words here. “I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat” is hard to interpret any other way than whichever advisor orchestrated this had some not-good polling data for the R+9 district Stefanik represents, or at best a general angst over a coming midterm that has all the hallmarks of being potentially ugly for the in-power party. Trump also throwing out she will be rejoining the House leadership team is something to watch. There are no openings in the leadership team, so Johnson will have to create one out of thin air to appease Stefanik and Trump, which will be super-popular with the existing leadership team who got there the old-fashioned way.
Such machinations are small things, but irritating congress critters already under enormous pressure is one more Jenga peg pulled out on the already teetering Trump agenda. By extension, and with the rhetorical head pat of “Speaker Johnson is thrilled!” to go along with it, there is no version of this move that says Trump and his team have any faith in Speaker Johnson to pull off the legislative agenda on his own. Of course, had Trump not pulled Mike Waltz from congress to be his National Security Advisor and failed Signal group chat administrator Johnson would have one more warm body and vote to his majority. Which, since Waltz left congress but not his phone contact listing for Jeffrey Goldberg, Stefanik spent March in the political purgatory of having to hold her house seat while her nomination was held up. While still planning her big move to Midtown East. Which now isn’t happening. There are other moves that would have meant the GOP congressional margin for error wouldn’t be all that thin to start with. But hindsight is 20/20 and congressional math is hard, especially when handing out promises for promotion to lawmakers then realizing you sang the song of promise too long and not enough chairs for promises kept when the music stopped.
Anywho…Elise Stefanik.
Unlike the government employees dealing with a DOGE algorithm wrecking their careers, lives, and livelihoods, having a seat in congress is as good a fallback gig as there is. Rep. Stefanik’s Icarian departure from the political middle path of her previous public life didn’t end in the sea, at least not yet. But she did get her ambition wings singed and melted enough to return to earth. She will go back to her place in the leadership of the House GOP at least in function if not title, still a favorite of President Trump, and no more harm done than her own shattered dreams and additional interwebs mockery. She’ll have to deal with that pesky running for reelection thing now, but like President Trump said in his Truth Social missive dismissing her champagne wishes and caviar dreams of UN resume building, “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”
And we all know Trump is never wrong. Right?
