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'I-M-P-E-A-C-H': Donald Trump's science envoy quits, with letter embedded with message

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Washington: Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy expert appointed last year as a science envoy to the State Department, resigned on Wednesday, citing President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the final straw that led to his departure.

In a resignation letter posted to Twitter, Kammen wrote that Trump's remarks about the racial violence in Virginia had attacked "core values of the United States" and that it would have "domestic and international ramifications."

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Trump hits out at media over Charlottesville

US President Donald Trump blames the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to a Charlottesville protest organised by white supremacists.

However, his most biting message may have come in the form of a hidden acrostic; the first letter of each paragraph spelled out "I-M-P-E-A-C-H."

Demonstrations by white supremacist groups on August 12 turned deadly after a neo-Nazi ploughed a car into a crowd, killing one counterprotester and injuring at least 19 other people in Charlottesville. Two police officers were also killed when their helicopter crashed.

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Trump's response was widely criticised, even by some by members of his own political party, for being insufficient and vague.

Kammen, who was appointed during Barack Obama's presidency, said it would be unconscionable for him to continue serving the administration after those remarks. He said he stood with "the unequivocal and authoritative statements" of a slew of other public officials, both Democratic and Republican.

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"Acts and words matter," Kammen wrote. "To continue in my role under your administration would be inconsistent with the principles of the United States Oath of Allegiance to which I adhere."

In his resignation letter, Kammen also cited other concerns that predated Trump's Charlottesville comments, including the president's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord in June.

"Particularly troubling to me is how your response to Charlottesville is consistent with a broader pattern of behaviour that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet," Kammen wrote.

"Your decision to abdicate the leadership opportunities and the job creation benefits of the Paris climate Accord, and to undermine energy and environmental research are not acceptable to me. . . . Your actions to date have, sadly, harmed the quality of life in the United States, our standing abroad, and the sustainability of the planet."

The State Department appointed Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, as one of five U.S. science envoys in March 2016. At the time, Kammen said he would be working on various global energy initiatives, as well as "the wider Paris Accord."

During his approximately 18 months as a science envoy, Kammen said, the United States had "built significant partnerships in North and East Africa, and in the Middle East, around shared visions of national security, job creation in the U.S. and sustainable energy."

Kammen did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Kammen wrapped up his resignation letter with something of a warning for Trump, borrowing the words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "A people [or person] that values its privileges above principles soon loses both."

Trump's response to Charlottesville has cost him the support of a slew of business leaders and Hollywood performers who resigned from various presidential advisory groups.

Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, was the first member to quit the president's American Manufacturing Council, on August 14, citing "a matter of personal conscience" and "a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism." Trump quickly rebuked him on Twitter.

Over the next few days, several more executives followed Frazier's lead, prompting Trump to lash out at them as "grandstanders" who could easily be replaced.

Before the end of the week, both the manufacturing council and the president's Strategy & Policy Forum had been disbanded. Though Trump announced publicly it was his decision to end both councils, those close to the process, including JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, said the groups had already decided to disband.

Last Friday, the members of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced they were resigning en masse in a fiery letter.

"Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions . . ." the letter stated. "Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. We are better than this. If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too."

That letter also contained a hidden message. The first letters in each of those paragraphs, taken together, spelled out: "R-E-S-I-S-T."

Washington Post

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