WASHINGTON: A science envoy to the U.S. State Department on Wednesday resigned over President Donald Trump’s response to a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
The seven-paragraph resignation letter has a hidden message: IMPEACH, using the first letter of each paragraph.
In a resignation letter posted to Twitter, Daniel Kammen wrote that Trump's remarks about the racial violence in Virginia had attacked “core values of the United States” and that it would have “domestic and international ramifications”.
He Tweeted: “Mr. President, I am resigning as Science Envoy. Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet.”
Kammen, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, was deeply troubled with how Trump seemingly failed to condemn Charlottesville violence.
Demonstrations by white supremacist groups on Aug. 12 turned deadly after a neo-Nazi ploughed a car into a crowd, killing one counter-protester and injuring at least 19 other people in Charlottesville. Two Virginia state troopers were also killed when their helicopter crashed.
“My decision to resign is in response to your attacks on core values of the United States. Your failure to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis has domestic and international ramifications,” Kammen wrote.
Kammen has worked with various federal agencies since 1996, including the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. He was appointed as a science envoy last year by the State Department, under former President Barack Obama.
Trump set off a wave of criticism following the attack in Charlottesville when he said there was violence “on many sides.”
At a rally Tuesday in Arizona, he defended his statement and blamed the media for causing the controversy.
In his letter, Kammen said some of Trump’s earlier actions, like his decision in June to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, further influenced his decision to quit.
“Particularly troubling to me is how your response to Charlottesville is consistent with a broader pattern of behavior that enables sexism and racism and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet,” Kammen wrote.
“Your decision to abdicate the leadership opportunities and the job creation benefits of the Paris climate accord and to undermine energy and environmental research are not acceptable to me.”