Top Trump Official Touted Bogus Credentials, Including A Fake TIME Magazine Cover

State department official Mina Chang
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A senior official at the State Department exaggerated and even outright fabricated several facets of her professional and educational background, including a fake TIME Magazine cover of herself.

An investigation by NBC News found that Mina Chang, who serves as the department’s deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at a six-figure salary, has been embellishing her experience as a humanitarian leader by inflating her nonprofit’s accomplishments and making up a role at a U.N. panel on her nonprofit’s website (which went dark several hours after NBC News’ report came out).

Despite Chang’s claims that her nonprofit, Linking the World, has operated and built schools “in places like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Haiti, Kenya,” tax filings uncovered by NBC News show no indication that the nonprofit (with a budget of less than $300,000) has such a wide scope.

She also exaggerated her educational background in her bio on the State Department’s site with claims that she is an “alumna of Harvard Business School” (she doesn’t have a Harvard degree; she merely attended a program at the school for less than two months in 2016) and a “graduate” of the United States Army War College National Security Seminar (a four-day program).

To top it all off, she’s also touted a fake TIME Magazine cover to bolster her image (sound familiar?)

Chang presented the cover during a televised interview at Houston Community College, claiming she had been featured because she “brought some attention” to “technology being used to save lives in disaster response scenarios.”

However, the cover is “not authentic,” Time magazine spokesperson Kristin Matzen told NBC News.

The White House and the State Department did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Mina Chang, who serves as the department’s deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at a six-figure salary, has been embellishing her experience

    In other words, she’s perfect for the Trump Administration.

  2. Hope her family wants to spend more time with her.

  3. Avatar for pb pb says:

    How is she not Sec. of State? She seems to have all of the qualifications that tRump looks for.

  4. Avatar for tsp tsp says:

    A senior official at the State Department exaggerated and even outright fabricated several facets of her professional and educational background, including a fake TIME Magazine cover of herself.

    So, either the White House knew ahead of time that she was a fraud and they hired her anyway, OR they didn’t know anything about her and they hired her anyway. Hmmm…

  5. Avatar for byteme byteme says:

    A grifter with photoshop capabilities…

    I’m sure she got hired in the Trump Administration because she looked good on TV.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

156 more replies

Participants

Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for cervantes Avatar for economides Avatar for george_spiggott Avatar for becca656 Avatar for irasdad Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for dont Avatar for sniffit Avatar for clearwater Avatar for lastroth Avatar for mg Avatar for pb Avatar for greylady Avatar for schmed Avatar for darrtown Avatar for daulphin Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for demosthenes59 Avatar for skeptical Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for rucleare Avatar for anon84323658

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: