Antony Blinken Dragged US Diplomacy Into the 21st Century. Even He’s Surprised by the Results

Blinken spent the final two years of Obama’s presidency as deputy secretary of state. So it was hardly a surprise that he was one of Biden’s first cabinet hires in 2021. At his confirmation hearing, Blinken shared that his stepfather had been the sole student—among 900 children at his Polish school—to survive the Holocaust. The job is personal and all-consuming, and it’s not even one he can escape for a few hours at home: Protesters spent months this spring and summer camped outside his house, with the hope of pressuring him to end the humanitarian crisis that has grown out of Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip. At times they’ve poured fake blood on the road as the family—his wife, White House cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, and their 4- and 5-year-old kids—drive in and out.