Malpass is a Disaster Already

David Malpass

President Trump, on Wednesday, officially named David Malpass as the US candidate for the presidency of the World Bank.

The prevailing view is that Malpass is anti-the monster globalist bank.

But I warned yesterday:

[D]on't cheer just yet. Malpass strikes me more as a government mechanic than a demoliotion man. He knows how to play his cards. He has previously served as Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush. You don't get those positions by acting libertarian and even blowing up a small government division within a division.

And, indeed, yesterday, he came out singing praises for the World Bank.

“I care deeply about the mission and about breaking out of poverty and achieving growth and I’m sure that the World Bank can succeed,” Malpass, currently Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, told reporters in his Washington office.

Malpass also told reporters that many of his criticisms of the World Bank preceded the reforms to the institution which were paired with the capital increase. He also said that he would not slash the World Bank’s work on climate change and the environment. “I would expect that leadership to continue and also the Bank to honor the obligation it has with regards to the environment,” he said.

And the Treasury is now reminding that Malpass helped lead US talks that ended up with Washington’s unexpected support for a capital increase at the World Bank.

He is just another Trump bad personnel decision.

-RW