Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ ambassador recall sparks concern over politicization of foreign service

Since the founding of the modern American Foreign Service in 1924, there has never been anything like the recent move by the United States to recall 30 diplomats from embassies and other senior diplomatic posts, said the president of the American Foreign Service Association.

“This is unprecedented,” said John Dinkelman, also a former foreign minister.

Last week, US State Department officials said the administration is beginning to recall as it tries to reshape the status of American citizens abroad and employees who are considered to fully support President Donald Trump’s “America First” priorities.

Mission chiefs in at least 29 countries have been notified that they will end in January. All had taken their positions during the Biden administration.

Dinkelman and other former diplomats raise the concern that these actions may serve to disenfranchise the political establishment and fill it with those who lack the skills to deal with tricky issues.

“This recall amounts to institutional destruction, and will undermine the role of the United States in the world,” Dinkelman said.

“To a group of people who have dedicated their lives to implementing the policies of the newly elected leaders of our country, this is an insult.”

A hard hit Africa

The most affected region is Africa, where more than ten ambassadors or chiefs of mission were expelled from countries including Niger, Uganda, Senegal, Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Nigeria, Gabon, Congo, Burundi, Cameroon, and Rwanda, The Guardian reported.

Second is Asia, with embassy changes coming to six countries: Fiji, Laos, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Vietnam.

In the Middle East, the heads of missions were returned to Egypt and Algeria. The main European missions to receive recall orders include Slovakia, Montenegro, Armenia and North Macedonia.

The recall comes as Trump seeks to put loyalists in top roles as he begins his second term after facing opposition during his first term, Reuters reported.

Political appointees leave their posts when new administrations take office, but career ambassadors, while serving at the pleasure of the president, are often considered partisan and typically serve three to four years in their foreign posts without a change in government.

Dinkelman says that while diplomats and senior leaders are acting at the behest of the president, such a sudden and unexplained removal would disrupt the institution, undermine US credibility, and disrupt relations with allies.

He also said it “sends a sad message to career diplomats that expertise and resources are less important than political credibility.”

Dinkelman says that diplomats are hired to provide political advice and input to administrations as they consider political and policy decisions in various countries.

‘You need to hold the line’

Now questions will be raised about the qualifications of those who have been reinstated as ambassadors, said Dinkelman.

“Are you looking at the people in the increasingly divisive Foreign Service Corps who are just saying some political way of thinking about someone who might not have been so enthusiastic about supporting the administration?”

He says he believes the recall is a message from the Trump administration warning the Foreign Service about the “need to toe the line,” or that it’s active politics suggesting there is an attitude of containment within the Foreign Service.

Remembrance erases expertise: ex-consul

Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, says the recall is “a bad idea” and that the administration will be challenged to “conduct MAGA integrity tests among labor lawyers.”

In just one day, Trump removed tons of foreign affairs experts by firing these ambassadors, he said in an email to CBC News.

“These lawyers have a deep knowledge of the country they work in and international affairs,” said McFaul. “By firing these experienced ambassadors, Trump’s ability to implement his foreign policies has been severely hampered.”

Cameron Hume, who served as the US ambassador in several posts, told MS NOW that not having staff or people with some continuity in these posts makes it “really difficult to pass the peace agreement and make sure that everyone does what they say they’re going to do.”

“I think it’s going to get in the way of making those peace agreements work on the ground.”

Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted on the X website that the recall would make America “less safe, less powerful and less prosperous.”

In a letter to Trump, Shaheen and other Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the number of vacant US diplomatic posts would now rise to more than 100 – nearly half of all such posts in the world. Before the recall, about 80 of these positions were vacant.

A move could ‘harm US interests,’ senators say

That loss, the senators said in their letter, would allow America’s adversaries such as China, Russia and others to expand their reach and influence to limit, and harm, American interests. “

They also noted that without embassies in regions such as the Indo-Pacific, Africa, the Balkans and Latin America, it would be very difficult for Washington to counter China’s growing economic reach and what they called “Russia’s negative influence.”

The senators called on Trump to reverse his decision immediately “before more damage is done to America’s standing in the world.”