Mina Chang Department of State

State Department official Mina Chang falsely claimed she had obtained a Harvard degree, drastically exaggerated parts of her resumé, and even created a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it.

An NBC News investigation revealed that Chang presented the fake cover at her job interview for the State Department position, and even discussed it in a 2017 video interview.

A Time spokesperson confirmed the cover was a fake, and an eagle-eyed Twitter user noticed the barcode was simply the numbers 1-10 written backward and then forwards.

President Donald Trump himself famously created multiple fake Time magazine covers with his face on it, and even hung them in his properties and golf clubs throughout the United States for years.

Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

State Department official Mina Chang falsely claimed she had obtained a Harvard degree, drastically exaggerated parts of her resumé, and even created a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it, an NBC News investigation revealed.

Chang, who currently serves as deputy secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, joined the Trump administration in April.

The NBC report said in the process of applying for the job, she „also invented a role on a UN panel, claimed she had addressed both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and implied she had testified before Congress.“

Following President Donald Trump’s own lead, Chang even took the extraordinary step of making a knockoff Time magazine cover with her face on it, presented it at her job interviews, and even discussed it in a 2017 video interview about her work as CEO of the non-profit Linking the World.

„Well, we started using drone technology in disaster response and so that was when the whole talk of how is technology being used to save lives in disaster response scenarios, I suppose I brought some attention to that,“ Chang said in the video interview, also uncovered by NBC.

A Time spokesperson confirmed to NBC that the cover was a fake, and an eagle-eyed Twitter user noticed the barcode was simply the numbers 1-10 written backward and then forwards.

Tweet Embed:

//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1194307079605039104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Look at the barcode from the fake cover

9 876543210 1234567

Seriously? for real? https://t.co/5VPuPNzlSi pic.twitter.com/jxQNfBs4kV

Trump himself famously created multiple fake Time magazine covers with his face on it and even hung them in his properties and golf clubs throughout the United States for years. In the summer of 2017, Time formally requested that all Trump properties take down the fake magazine covers.

At the time, Washington Post reporter David Farenthold found that when scanned, the barcode on one fake Trump cover hanging in his properties linked to „software that lets you be a karaoke DJ.“

In addition to the fake Time cover, NBC found that Chang significantly misrepresented her educational and professional achievements on her LinkedIn profile.

While she claimed to boast a degree from Harvard Business School, the university told NBC she had only attended a seven-week program at Harvard in 2016. And the Army War College program she claimed to have completed was just a four-day national security seminar, the college told NBC.

NBC further found that the United Nations panel Chang said she attended was just a public roundtable, and her supposed speaking engagements at the 2016 Democratic and Republican National Committees were instead completely unrelated appearances in the host cities of both conventions which happened to take place around the same time.

Chang was initially nominated in 2018 for a much higher-level position at the State Department managing the US Agency International Development’s $1 billion programs in Asia, a post that would have required Senate confirmation. Her nomination for the USAID job and ultimately withdrawn last September, and she assumed her current position seven months ago.

Read more:

Trump tweeted an edited Time magazine video showing him as president ‚4eva‘

Time magazine asks Trump’s clubs to take down fake magazine cover with his face on it

New Yorker cartoon trolls Trump for fake Time magazine cover hanging in Trump hotels