At Embassies Abroad, Trump Envoys Are Quietly Pushing Out Career Diplomats

[RandySF]

This story draws on interviews from 10 current and former U.S. officials and other people familiar with the matters in question. The State Department did not respond to five requests for comment for this story, including requests to interview or receive a response from Marks.

In several cases where deputy chiefs of mission were forced out early, including the U.S. Embassy in France led by Ambassador Jamie McCourt, Trump’s ambassadors have cycled through two or three deputy chiefs during their tenure. The embassies where deputy chiefs are being sacked are all led by deep-pocketed Republican political donors whom Trump tapped to be ambassadors, despite some having no prior diplomatic or government experience.

Marks, who was born in South Africa, founded a highly successful luxury handbag company bearing her name. She has served on Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Women’s Leadership Board and as a lecturer at Georgetown University’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, according to her official biography on the U.S. Embassy in South Africa’s website. She is also one of at least eight members of Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to be offered senior administration positions, according to a 2019 investigation by USA Today. She has been in South Africa for several months, after the ambassador post sat empty for three years.



https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/05/us-embassies-abroad-trump-envoys-pushing-out-career-diplomats-deputy-chiefs-mission-south-africa-diplomacy-pompeo-lana-marks/

[MFGsunny]

1. another snip from OP link

snip

“We are deeply concerned by the number of removals of deputy chiefs of mission overseas, which are happening at way above the normal pace,” said Eric Rubin, a senior foreign service officer currently serving as president of the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats. “It’s generally very rare for a DCM to be removed by the ambassador. It does happen. Sometimes it happens for a good cause. But it’s rare. And it is now becoming an epidemic.”

snip

[DFW]

2. Republicans have been notorious for sending unqualified ambassadors to major countries

I remember in 2001, when a friend of mine was an incoming Ambassador to France from one of our closest NATO allies. During one visit to his embassy residence, he told me about Bush's new ambassador to France. Some horse aficionado with a screeching wife who demanded he get a photo of him and Bush put on the embassy residence's piano, where the career diplomat had photos of him and only the heads of state he had served under. Since his last posting before Paris had been Washington, there was, naturally, a photo of him and Bill Clinton.

Republican administrations have a talent of sending offensive, unqualified hacks to represent us as ambassadors. I guess they figure that if America's worst is going to be in office in Washington, they might as well send our worst to represent us abroad, too. Trump's current ambassador to Germany arrived telling the Germans and the Austrians he was there to help out and promote far right political movements--in GERMANY, of all places! You can imagine how THAT went over here.

[SoCalNative]

6. ANd don't forget those so well qualified

Hollywood actors:

John Gavin - Ambassador to Mexico (1981-86) - appointed by Ronald Reagan
Shirley Temple - Ambassador to Ghana (1974-1976) - appointed by Gerald Ford
Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) - appointed by Bush I

[DFW]

8. The list is long and embarrassing

I have been doing damage control for America here in Europe during Republican administrations for so long, I think the State Department owes ME back pay. After all, I speak nine European languages, which is eight more than what the embarrassing Republican "ambassadors" spoke.

For that matter, Republicans usually don't even known WHAT they speak. Most of the ones I meet in the States think they speak "American." I then ask which one? Navajo? Cherokee? Inuit? Lakota? They usually make a face and say, "no, English!" Then they get all upset when I say, "well, if that is all you speak, then you don't speak American at all. You speak European. You DO know where England is, right?" Then comes the scary part. Some of them DON'T know where England is!

[dalton99a]

3. The Foreign Minister from Moscow is in charge

[DFW]

9. Sent by the real commander in chief

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[dalton99a]

10. Yep, the capo di tutti i capi

[rockfordfile]

4. Yeah trump is a traitor

[keithbvadu2]

5. 'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies

'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies
November 3, 2017

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/03/561797675/im-the-only-one-that-matters-trump-says-of-state-dept-job-vacancies

[2naSalit]

7. +1