Trump-appointed State Department official embellished her résumé, made fake Time cover: report

Mina Chang, a senior official within the State Department, exaggerated her background on her résumé, including a fake cover of Time magazine with her face on it, NBC News reported on Tuesday. 

Chang currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, where her main job duties revolve around preventing conflicts from escalating in politically unstable countries.

{mosads}On her résumé, Chang claims that she is a graduate of Harvard Business School, but the university told NBC that she only completed a seven-week course in 2016 and doesn’t hold a degree from Harvard.

Additionally, her biography on the State Department’s website says that she’s a graduate of a program at the Army War College, but the program she attended was, in fact, a four-day seminar.

Chang’s LinkedIn profile mentions the University of Nations, an unaccredited Christian school that has 600 locations worldwide, the network reports. Her most relevant job experience for her current position appears to be the time she served as CEO of a nonprofit called Linking the World.

Despite touting that the nonprofit was building schools in multiple countries, tax filings for the company don’t show concrete evidence of overseas projects, but reveal an operating budget of only $300,000 with a handful of staff.

Ian Dailey, former chief of staff of Linking the World, told NBC that the nongovernmental organization doesn’t run large-scale programs like Chang suggests.

“We are not implementers of programs,” Dailey said. “We pilot new technologies, testing their practicalities, and seek to identify the ‘unintended consequences’ that are rife in our industry.”

A 2017 video on the nonprofit’s website includes the Time cover, which a spokesperson for the magazine described as “not authentic.”

According to the NBC, Chang had initially been considered to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) work in Asia, a position that requires Senate confirmation. She would’ve been in charge of a budget of over $1 billion. 

The Trump administration reportedly announced its decision to nominate Chang for the USAID position in late 2018. 

However, the nomination was withdrawn in early September after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee inquired about more supporting documents about her work experience, NBC reports.

Prior to her nomination, Chang didn’t have a direct tie to the Trump administration, but Brian Bulatao, a classmate and business partner of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was reportedly a regular at Linking the World’s fundraising events.

The Hill reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.

Trump himself has been accused of making use of doctored covers of Time. In 2017, the magazine officially asked the Trump Organization to remove copies of a fake Trump cover that were on display at several of his golf clubs.