Sounds Like Some Ambassadors Thought They Had A Job For Life. No Wonder We Have A Mess, They Did Not Plan For A Trump Victory

Donald Trump aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday. | AP Photo

Trump won't give grace period to Obama's ambassadors

By NAHAL TOOSI

 

01/05/17 10:20 PM EST

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

In an unusual step, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has decided not to let U.S. ambassadors who are political appointees of President Barack Obama stay on for a grace period beyond Inauguration Day, a source confirmed Thursday.

The decision has left some of the diplomats, who represent the United States in countries such as Britain, Saudi Arabia and Japan, scrambling to figure out new living arrangements, visa rules and what options they have for their children's schooling. It also could mean some top U.S. embassies are left without an ambassador for months as Trump finds his footing.

In typical presidential transitions, politically appointed ambassadors have at times been allowed to stay on the job for weeks or months after the new president has taken office. It's partly been done this way out of personal courtesy for their family situations, but it can also help allow for some continuity as the new administration moves to fill a vast number of postings stateside and abroad.

Following tradition, President Barack Obama has directed all political appointees in his Democratic administration to submit their resignations effective on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, making room for the new Republican president's appointees.

PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

Trump, Obama set to shadowbox in Virginia governor's race

By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

When asked about ambassadors requesting extensions, the Trump transition team informed the State Department that it was not making any exceptions, a State Department official told POLITICO. The department began sending cables at least as early as Dec. 21 to individual ambassadors telling them that they would have to quit their posts on time.

News of the Trump team's decision was first reported by The New York Times. Trump aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday. It was not immediately clear exactly how many ambassadors were affected.

"Some of the ambassadors really thought they could stay, so there’s a little bit of a scramble now," said the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They’re mostly resigned to it now."

According to the American Foreign Service Association, a union representing diplomats, there are 188 ambassadorships available, a figure that has varied over the years.

During his two terms, Obama named hundreds of people to the posts, roughly 30 percent of whom are political appointees, which generally require Senate confirmation. That figure is roughly in line with other presidents in recent decades.

As presidents of both political parties have done before him, Obama handed out many of the ambassadorships to campaign donors or other supporters.

FOREIGN POLICY

Kissinger, a longtime Putin confidant, sidles up to Trump

By NAHAL TOOSI and ISAAC ARNSDORF

The more dangerous, less glamorous ambassador postings — countries such as Sudan, Afghanistan or Russia — tend to go to career Foreign Service officers, who are not required to step down by Inauguration Day.

Within the Foreign Service, there has been tremendous speculation over who Trump will nominate for what postings. Trump has already named Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as his ambassador to China and bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman for the post in Israel.

But it's highly unlikely that the Republican president-elect will have decided who all of his foreign envoys will be by the time he takes office.

In the absence of the ambassadors who now must leave by Jan. 20, the affected U.S. embassies will likely be run by the highest-ranking career employee until Trump nominates someone new and that person is confirmed by the Senate. The process could take months.

Trump Has His First Big "Your Fired" Moment!

9:31 a.m. 

FOLLOW THE WEEK ON FACEBOOK

TRUMP TRANSITION

Donald Trump has ordered all Obama ambassadors to quit by Inauguration Day, without exception

12:47 a.m. ET

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

For decades, U.S. ambassadors politically appointed by an outgoing president have been able to request an extension until Congress confirms their replacement, selected by an incoming president, but President-elect Donald Trump has informed all such ambassadors that they must resign by Jan. 20 "without exceptions," according to a Dec. 23 State Department cable described to The New York Times. This will leave many key U.S. allies — Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan — without a U.S. ambassador for up to several months, but it also has envoys with school-age children — as Trump does — scrambling to figure out what to do.
"Political" ambassadors, as opposed to career diplomats, often have close ties to a president or donated to their campaigns, and they always leave when a new president from a different party takes office, says Ronald E. Neumann, president of the Washington-based American Academy of Diplomacy. "But I don't recollect there was ever a guillotine in January where it was just, 'Everybody out of the pool immediately.'" The U.S. ambassadors to the Czech Republic, Belgium, and Costa Rica, and America's U.N. representative in Geneva, all have children in the middle of school years, and the Costa Rica envoy, Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, is scrambling to find an apartment for himself, his wife (who's fighting breast cancer), and his four school-age children, The New York Times reports.
Giving ambassadors a grace period is up to the incoming administrations, and a Trump transition official tells The Times there is no malice in the blanket mandate. Derek Shearer, a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and diplomacy professor at Occidental College, says he doesn't see any other rationale. "It feels like there's an element just of spite and payback in it," he told The Times. "I don't see a higher policy motive." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was especially accommodating, according to former diplomat Marc Grossman. "He was trying to, I think, send a message that family was important." Peter Weber

Want To Be An Ambassador, Give Millions To Obama!

Reporter: ‘How Much Does It Cost’ To Get An Obama Ambassadorship?’ State Department: That’s A ‘TV Question’

February 7, 2014 by Ben Bullard 

 43 20

 

 0 87

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki could only giggle and dissemble Friday when ABC News’ Jonathan Karl inquired about President Obama’s recent spate of ambassadorial nominees – all top Obama campaign bundlers – who’ve embarrassed themselves and the Nation by demonstrating they know less than nothing about the countries where they’re headed.

After Psaki attempted to wave off Karl’s original question – whether rudimentary knowledge of a host country is important when the Obama Administration considers a nominee to an ambassador’s post – Karl persisted: “[Most of these [nominees] gave hundreds of thousands of dollars or raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign. How much does it cost to become an ambassador, to be named ambassador, in the Obama Administration?”

Here’s the relevant portion of their exchange (H/T The Washington Free Beacon for the transcript):

So I mean, as you know, there’s been some criticism that — of the specific qualifications of some of the recent nominees. I mean, George Tsunis didn’t seem to even know what type of government Norway has, called one of the members of the ruling coalition a fringe element. So I’m wondering does an — does an ambassador have to have at least some basic knowledge of the country that he is going to?

PSAKI: Well, I think ambassadors go to countries — obviously that’s the goal — but the ambassadors go to countries to represent the United States, to be a resource to people on the ground. We’ve seen those reports. We’ve all read them. But I would encourage people to give those who have had tougher hearings a chance to go to their countries and see what their tenure will entail. And the judgment can’t be made about how effective they’ll be or how appreciated they’ll be by the government until we have that happen.

KARL: So right now you have — the percentage is 37 percent, which is considerably more political appointees than George Bush had, considerably more than Bill Clinton had. And I’m going through the list. I mean, most of these gave hundreds of thousands of dollars or raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign. How much does it cost to become an ambassador, to be named ambassador, in the Obama administration?

PSAKI: Jonathan Karl, always a TV question. We don’t determine –

KARL: Well, it’s serious because –

PSAKI: I’m not — I’m not — it is a serious question. We don’t name ambassadors from the State Department. The White House names ambassadors, so I would certainly point you to my old colleagues across the street for that. What I was conveying is that from the State Department point of view there have been many, many political ambassadors, people who have come from a range of histories and backgrounds, who have been very successful and worked very effectively in these roles.

How did she manage to say nothing in that many words?