Another State Dept. Holdover Quits, CNN Blames Trump's Withdrawal from Paris Accord

David Rank, a career State Department bureaucrat who once served in an acting role as ambassador to China, quit Monday with sources close to him telling CNN President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement was the motivation.

Rank, who served as acting ambassador until May 24th, when Trump-nominee Terry Branstad of Iowa took his post, was reported to be resigning from the State Department over Trump’s Thursday announcement that the United States would no longer be bound by the Paris Climate Agreement.

Confusingly, CNN reported his supposed resignation as “Sources: Acting US ambassador to China quit over Trump climate decision,” strongly implying Rank was still serving as ambassador to China and that his resignation would leave the Trump administration in the lurch.

Multiple news outlets reported that Rank was now serving as chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy.

No one at the State Department confirmed on the record CNN’s claim that Rank, who has been a State Department career-service employee since 1990, quit over the climate decision.  “Mr. Rank made a personal decision,” a State Department official told CNN, “We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department.”

What is clear is that Rank served in China when former President Obama signed the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump and others have argued is harmful to the American economy. The accord imposes limitations on both the United States and China, but allows the communist country, and the world’s largest CO2 emitter, more leeway on fossil fuel use reduction. It also burdens the United States with large sums of donations to a “Green Climate Fund,” to which China would have no obligation.

The Washington Post reported that Rank told his staff his conscience would not allow him to deliver to the Chinese the news of American withdrawal from Paris. Another unnamed source told the Post Rank told his staff he was “a parent, a patriot, and a Christian.”

With 27 years of service in the State Department, Rank may qualify for a significant government pension, depending on his age.

Both CNN and the Post linked this event with the resignation of another career State Department Official, Acting U.S. Ambassador to the UK Lewis Lukens, who supposedly left his post after the President mocked London Mayor Sadiq Kahn over his response to Sunday’s Islamic terror attacks in his city.