Kiron Skinner, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was fired this week over what some described as her "abusive" management style. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images foreign policy Top State Department adviser fired over 'abusive' management style Kiron Skinner, the director of the Policy Planning Staff, was told on Thursday that she was being dismissed.

A senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was fired this week over what officials described as her “abusive” management style, including making homophobic remarks and accusing people of having affairs, according to two people.

Kiron Skinner, the director of Policy Planning, was told Thursday that she was being dismissed, a Trump administration official said. A senior State Department official also confirmed the firing, saying that several members of Skinner’s staff had threatened to quit if she wasn’t removed.


Two other State Department officials said Skinner acted unprofessionally in multiple ways, including yelling in public spaces and using homophobic language. She retaliated against employees by kicking them out of their offices and even alleged that some people were having affairs, the two officials said.

“It was an abuse of authority,” one of them said.

Skinner did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but high-profile diplomats and academics issued statements of support on her behalf.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz described her as a “first-class scholar” who “adheres steadfastly to the principles of honesty and integrity.”

The historian Niall Ferguson said he was disappointed to hear of her departure and has “never known her to be anything but cool, calm and collected.”

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

One of the few prominent African American members of the Trump administration before leaving this week, Skinner is close to a number of conservative luminaries, such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

She hails from an academic background, and was brought in to help the State Department think in long-term, strategic ways about foreign policy. But she’s also long had a reputation for having sharp elbows — many of her past associates, especially in academia, flat out refuse to talk about her.

Pompeo hired Skinner to head the Policy Planning Staff almost a year ago, describing her as “a national security powerhouse” and “a one-woman, strategic thinking tour de force” in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “I’m confident that she will enhance our influence overseas, protect the American people, and promote our prosperity,” he said.

She succeeded Brian Hook, who now serves as the special envoy for Iran issues.

Under Hook and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Policy Planning was unusually active, participating in day-to-day policymaking and almost functioning as a mini-State Department. The set-up infuriated other bureaus in the department, who felt their ideas were ignored.

When Pompeo took as secretary of State, he decided that Policy Planning — also known as S/P in department lingo — should revert to its more traditional role of acting as an in-house think tank with long-term ideas and strategies.

Skinner appeared on board with that, and her staffers — some of whom she recruited from academia — spent much of their time churning out white papers and other documents on major geopolitical issues.

She kept a tight rein on the S/P crew, warning them in particular to avoid the media.

But, according to State Department officials, she also was such a poor manager that almost a third of the 20-plus member staff quit or moved to other positions during her time at the helm. Another five people recently threatened to leave if she wasn’t ousted, the officials said.

It’s unclear how much influence Skinner has on Pompeo, who is traveling in Asia this week.

Kiron Skinner in 2017. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

The secretary of State has surrounded himself with several advisers, including well-respected career diplomats, who vie for his attention. There’s also Hook, several other special envoys who deal with specific hot-button issues, and Mary Kissel, a former Wall Street Journal opinion writer who advises Pompeo on policy and messaging.

Skinner was recently tasked with coordinating the work of a special panel Pompeo established to re-examine the basics of human rights policy. The panel, called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, has drawn fierce criticism from human rights activists who fear its aims are to undercut gains made by women and LGBTQ people.

A second Trump administration official who knows Skinner told POLITICO earlier this year that Skinner “believes very strongly in what [President Donald Trump] is trying to do on foreign policy — a resource-constrained, realist approach to the world.”

Skinner is particularly interested in China. Earlier this year, she drew public criticism after describing China as a civilizational threat to the United States, and claiming — erroneously — that it was the first non-Caucasian challenger.

Critics decried her framing of the Chinese challenge as unhelpful, while noting that Japan was once a major competitor to the West. Supporters insist she merely had a rare stumble in her speaking, pointing out that she’s known for being especially erudite, including in the classroom.

“She engages incredibly well. She cares about her students,” said Ken Weinstein, president of the Hudson Institute, who met Skinner while in graduate school at Harvard University.

Weinstein, in an interview several weeks ago, said Skinner stood out at Harvard for more than just her ethnic background and political views.

“She’s also been someone who’s always argued that our elites are too self-referential, too small — she’s always made the case for diversity,” Weinstein said.

According to her bio page at Carnegie Mellon University, where she's long held a post, Skinner earned graduate degrees from Harvard and undergraduate degrees from Spelman College and Sacramento City College.

She gained celebrity status in conservative circles early on in her academic career for her books on Ronald Reagan. One in particular, “Reagan: In His Own Hand,” was based on handwritten notes of the former president that Skinner found during archival research.

The book gave voice to those who have long argued that Reagan had a far more active, intellectual mind — one that grappled with a range of domestic and foreign policies — than he’s given credit for.

One of Skinner’s supporters has been Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation. The two became close friends years ago after James saw Skinner interviewed on C-SPAN and reached out to her.

James said in an interview earlier this year that Skinner is a “workaholic” and that “nothing excites her more than research, writing and speaking.” James waved off Skinner’s reputation as headstrong and sharp-elbowed.

“As a fellow African American female conservative Republican that’s sort of an occupational hazard,” James said at the time. “When a male does exactly the same thing it’s viewed as someone who stands his ground. We are viewed as witches with capital Bs.”

On Friday, after learning of Skinner's firing, James said in a statement that her friend "has a bright future ahead of her."

"Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen what happened to Dr. Skinner play out in Washington. I’ve only known her to be of the highest character," James said in the statement. "Our country is better off because of her tireless work on behalf of America."