US President Donald Trump's response to the deadly chaos that gripped Charlottesville was widely criticised. Photo / AP
US President Donald Trump's response to the deadly chaos that gripped Charlottesville was widely criticised. Photo / AP
By Debra Killalea
It was a coded message of defiance hidden in a resignation letter.
US Government science envoy Daniel Kammen has become the latest official to resign over Donald Trump's response to Charlottesville.
The Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, listed his reasons for stepping down from his position as State Department science envoy and included a hidden message within his resignation letter.
The one page letter contained a less obvious but powerful message - an acrostic, with the first letter of each paragraph spelling "IMPEACH."
Daniel Kammen's resignation letter to Donald Trump. Photo / Daniel Kammen Twitter
The renewable energy expert has been in government service since 1996 and served as a State Department envoy since 2016.
In his letter posted to Twitter he said the President had "harmed the quality of life in the United States, our standing abroad, and the sustainability of the planet".
The final straw, however, was Trump's refusal to immediately condemn white supremacists who led the deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"My decision to resign is in response to your attacks on the core values of the United States. Your failure to condemn white supremacists and Neo-Nazis has domestic and international ramifications," Kammen wrote.
"Acts and words matter," Kammen wrote. "To continue in my role under your administration would be inconsistent with the principles of the United States Oath of Allegiance to which I adhere."
In his tweet, Kammen said the President's response to Charlottesville "enables racism, sexism, and harms our country and planet".
Trump slammed the violence that took place saying there was blame on many sides but was widely criticised for taking two days to condemn the white supremacists who staged the rally.
In an interview with CNN, Kammen said he didn't believe what the President was doing was consistent with the best interests of the United States and the global community.
Kammen is married to a Nigerian-American woman and the couple's children are bi-racial.
He told the broadcaster the violence in Charlottesville was a tipping point for him.
"I can't stand with this President and then go home and tell my kids, 'Gee, I'm working with someone who seems to be promoting Neo-Nazis, racism, sexism,'" he said.
Kammen is the latest in a series of officials and panellists to resign their posts and isn't the first to deliver a hidden message in doing so.
Daniel Kammen gave a long list of reasons for his resignation. Photo / University of Berkeley YouTube
When the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned en masse last week, the first letter of each paragraph of their letter spelled out "RESIST" - a watchword for opponents of the Trump administration
Earlier this month, Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier resigned from Trump's American Manufacturing Council.
Frazier, an African-American, claimed he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy, which left Heather Heyer and two state troopers dead, and dozens of others injured.
DEFIANT MESSAGE
During a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday night, Trump blamed the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to the violence in Charlottesville.
The President also implied he was the victim of the furore over the violence, blaming the "fake media" for the controversy.
"The very dishonest media ... and I mean truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories. They have no sources in many cases. They say 'a source says' -- there is no such thing," he told the rally.
"But they don't report the facts. Just like they don't want to report that I spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemned the Neo-Nazis, the white supremacists and the KKK."
