WFP chief Cindy McCain mulls 'graceful exit' after Trump victory

 ROME – Staff at the World Food Programme may be about to start a “bring back Beasley” movement at the UN agency after the evident Trump U.S. election comeback victory as WFP’s beleaguered Executive Director Cindy McCain and her helicopter pilot chief of staff begin “planning for a graceful exit,” a senior WFP executive said Wednesday.

 “The two of them must be on Valium today, planning for a graceful exit” the executive told the Italian Insider, speaking on condition he not be named. The head of the WFP in recent decades has been nominated by the White House and then endorsed by the UN Secretary General and the head of the sister UN agency in Rome, the Food and Agriculture Organization.

 Ms McCain was nominated for the top WFP post by the Biden administration despite being a Republican since she had campaigned for Biden, a personal friend of hers, against Trump in the key state of Arizona where her late husband was governor. Republican appointee Josette Sheeran was able to serve out the rest of her term at the head of WFP even after Barack Obama became president but Trump and his cohorts in the past have been quick to yank out ambassadors and other political appointees almost within days of his being elected even if it means leaving a long interregnum.

 Ms McCain succeeded former Republican governor of South Carolina David Beasley who was highly popular among staff and a superlative fundraiser climaxing in his collecting a Nobel Prize awarded to the WFP.

 Ms McCain became unpopular with many staff after appearing to support Israel during the Gaza war in the wake of the Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. She had the reputation of rarely venturing out from her office and arranged for her chief of staff, former Navy chopper pilot Meghan Latcovich, to stay at her swanky apartment in Rome when she was in the Eternal City as a de facto bodyguard, WFP sources say. 

 “Donaldo is a bit more vindictive that Barry,” the WFP executive added. “I expect a resurgent ‘Bring Back Beasley’or ‘David Come Back’movement in WFP.

 “Remember, one reason Donaldo lost out last time may be because Cindy helped to deliver Arizona for Joe. He won’t have forgotten that.”

  In addition to Ms McCain the recently arrived US Ambassador to the UN agencies indicated earlier this year he expected to be curtailing his assignment in the event of a Trump victory.

 jf