{"id":260,"date":"2026-05-24T16:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2026-05-24T16:40:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:40:02","slug":"trumps-insistence-on-personal-loyalty-from-ambassadors-could-crimp-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s insistence on personal loyalty from ambassadors could crimp US foreign\u00a0policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Just before Christmas, President Donald Trump fired more than two dozen career ambassadors. The action was unprecedented, providing a clear signal that when it comes to diplomacy, Trump values loyalty above all else.<\/p>\n

Read more Lasting peace in Ukraine may hinge on independent monitors \u2013 yet Trump\u2019s 28\u2011point plan barely mentions\u00a0them<\/a><\/p>\n

All ambassadors face a persistent tension in their roles \u2013 having to represent the viewpoints of the president while also winning the trust of leaders in the countries where they serve. Presidents, unsurprisingly, often favor loyalists, in whom they have greater confidence.<\/p>\n

Trump has pursued this to an exceptional degree, making more purely political picks than normal. Of the nearly 70 ambassadors he has appointed to date during this term, fewer than 10% have been career professionals with experience in the Foreign Service.<\/p>\n

But as I have argued in my book \u201cDelegated Diplomacy,\u201d there is value in working through diplomats who disagree with you.<\/p>\n

A diplomat who unfailingly follows the Washington line contributes little to a bilateral relationship, becoming nothing more than an expensive substitute for a secure phone line. A skilled ambassador knows when to soften a message, recognizes when pushing too hard will backfire, and sees the value in compromise.<\/p>\n

At times, this diplomatic approach may sacrifice short-run gains available through more aggressive means. But in precisely those moments when leverage is most necessary, an ambassador who\u2019s established trust can push harder and gain more as a result. <\/p>\n

All the president\u2019s men<\/h2>\n

The idea that U.S. career diplomats place too much weight on foreign interests, rather than putting American, or presidential, interests first, is a perennial suspicion.<\/p>\n

Presidents have felt this way themselves. In 1952, President Harry Truman wrote, \u201cThe State Department is clannish and snooty and sometimes I feel like firing the whole bunch.\u201d Two decades later, President Richard M. Nixon told Henry Kissinger, his national security adviser and soon-to-be secretary of state, that he intended \u201cto ruin the Foreign Service. I mean ruin it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither of those presidents followed through. With his mass firing of career diplomats, Trump has come closer. His administration has made it clear that loyalty will dominate its diplomatic personnel policy, with the State Department itself asserting the \u201cpresident\u2019s right to ensure he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only has Trump weighted the diplomatic corps with political appointees, but he\u2019s often bypassed even his own ambassadors in favor of working informally through members of his inner circle.<\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s most delicate tasks, such as dealing with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, have often been delegated to Steve Witkoff, a real estate developer whose primary qualification appears to be his close friendship with the president, and Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law.<\/p>\n

Close personal ties<\/h2>\n

A preference to work diplomatically through intimates is understandable. Close personal knowledge of the president can provide credibility and weight to an envoy\u2019s word. There is ample precedent for such selections, such as John F. Kennedy\u2019s reliance in 1962 on his brother Robert as his crucial intermediary during the Cuban missile crisis, in which the U.S. ultimately convinced the Soviet Union to remove nuclear weapons from Cuba.<\/p>\n

Read more Ukraine is under pressure to trade land for peace \u2212 if it does, history shows it might not ever get it\u00a0back<\/a><\/p>\n

Such ties are likely to be all the more important in the current administration, where the president maintains such an openness to unconventional foreign policy choices. Career ambassadors who know no more about the president\u2019s intentions than whatever the world can read in his latest Truth Social posts may not be able to do their jobs effectively, whether they ultimately keep them or not.<\/p>\n

Career vs. political<\/h2>\n

American ambassadors receive their posts through two tracks. Historically, a minority of ambassadors have been political appointees selected by the president, often as the result of close ties to him. These ambassadors routinely leave their positions when a new administration takes office.<\/p>\n

The majority of ambassadors \u2013 including those who were recently fired \u2013 are career Foreign Service officers, most of whom have spent decades working their way up through the ranks of the diplomatic corps under presidents of both parties. Selected internally by the State Department \u2013 but subject to White House sign-off \u2013 these ambassadors serve on a nonpartisan basis and nearly always complete their tours of duty, informally set at three years, regardless of presidential turnover.<\/p>\n

Diplomats have value to the president precisely because they have cultivated relationships, trust and expertise overseas through a willingness to understand and sympathize with foreign audiences. But this also means that they may rarely be in lockstep with the president\u2019s view of the world. Hence, the friction ambassadors face in their in-between role.<\/p>\n

Loss of experience<\/h2>\n

It is one thing to fire ambassadors who have impeded the president\u2019s agenda in some way; it is quite another to clear them out preemptively as Trump did in December. Ultimately, the loss of the expertise and relationships accrued by career diplomats will likely bite.<\/p>\n

Professional diplomats are trained and acculturated to set aside their own views. As former Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat once observed, Foreign Service officers \u201cbend over backward to follow every U.S. president\u2019s leadership, even when they disagree with specific policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is precisely why previous administrations have not fulfilled their fantasies of dismantling the Foreign Service. Truman, despite his contempt, conceded that \u201cit requires a tremendous amount of education to accomplish the purposes for which the State Department is set up.\u201d During Kissinger\u2019s time as secretary of state, the Nixon administration ended up selecting an uncommonly high number of careerists for key positions.<\/p>\n

This has not been Trump\u2019s approach. It\u2019s unlikely that will change. He demands loyalty throughout his administration, but diplomats have given him particular reason to think they might flout his wishes. In 2017, a thousand U.S. diplomats signed on to a message arguing that the administration\u2019s travel ban would be counterproductive. A similar number joined a message this year protesting the administration\u2019s closure of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID.<\/p>\n

Clearly, some officers will dissent so vigorously as to be unwilling to advance certain policies. They can be expected to resign, as many of their colleagues have done already. <\/p>\n

But the career diplomats who remain will speak with a louder voice on the international stage precisely because the world believes they are not lapdogs.<\/p>\n

Read more Why are the ICJ and ICC cases on Israel and Gaza taking so\u00a0long?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ambassadors play a middle role between the countries where they serve and the one they represent. 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