President Donald Trump is ordering dozens of U.S. ambassadors around the world to leave their posts and return to the country within weeks. It’s yet another precedent-breaking maneuver by the president to remold the U.S.’ diplomatic apparatus into a more overtly political arm of government.
According to The New York Times, the nearly 30 ambassadors being recalled are career diplomats — foreign service officers who typically serve under presidents of either party and whose terms usually run their course without intervention from a new president. That makes them different from political appointee ambassadors, who are expected to resign when a new president comes on. (That’s what former President Joe Biden’s politically appointed diplomats did when Trump took office in January.)
Trump’s mass recall represents yet another example of how he’s gutting vital institutional knowledge.
Nikki Gamer, a spokesperson for the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents career diplomats, told the Times that the union “can say definitively that such a mass recall has never happened since the founding of the Foreign Service as we know it.” Gamer also said that the way they were being dismissed was “highly irregular” — because they were being notified abruptly by phone without any explanation. According to The Washington Post, they’ll have 90 days to find a new position in the State Department, which is going to be difficult at a time when the department has faced massive cuts and there are scarce job openings.
AFSA said in a statement that the removal of the diplomats without known cause sends a “dangerous message” and “tells our allies that America’s commitments may shift with the political winds.” The statement added that the move “tells our public servants that loyalty to country is no longer enough — that experience and oath to the Constitution take a backseat to political loyalty.”
Trump’s mass recall represents yet another example of how he’s gutting vital institutional knowledge associated with what he and his supporters derisively call “the deep state” in Washington. The effect is a loss of credentialed, nonpartisan civil experts whose experience is incredibly valuable for achieving U.S. foreign policy goals and managing everything from mitigating conflict to foreign investment to helping Americans stuck in a foreign country during a disaster. The Trump administration has presented no evidence that the recalled diplomats were not doing their jobs or following orders, but these kinds of actions are likely to chill independent thinking, as well as push diplomats to execute the administration’s directives bluntly and without the kind of finesse that experienced diplomats are known for. This is all happening as Trump appoints a special envoy to Greenland to signal his continuing interest in trying to annex the territory from Denmark — which has infuriated the Danes. Trump is not interested in retaining or attracting the best people for diplomacy. He’s looking for personal errand boys to help try to execute his personal imperialistic fantasies.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer for MS NOW. Sign up for his newsletter. 
