Trump orders all Obama-appointed ambassadors to leave by Jan. 20, no exceptions

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The move could leave critical nations without an ambassador for months.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-ambassadors_us_586f4a64e4b043ad97e2cd84

[KingSweden]

Ask yourself what a Russian plant would be doing differently

[KingSweden]

And I'm saying that as somebody who thinks Branstad to China and Hagerty to Japan are non terrible choices

[JA]

Yeah, that doesn't demonstrate total incompetence. Not at all...

[JJC]

Good and good riddance.

[KingSweden]

Tangential, but the way we do ambassadorships in this country is nuts. Nearly all other countries have career FSOs handling this kind of thing, not ex-politicians getting a nice pre-retirement gig or donors who bought themselves a several-year government paid vacation in a foreign country. Ambassadorships should be for diplomats, not hacks.

Whether Dem or Rep, I should add

[Ljube]

Good and good riddance.

Yeah!

Let's get rid of those incompetent political HACKS as soon as possible.

[Indy Texas]

Tangential, but the way we do ambassadorships in this country is nuts. Nearly all other countries have career FSOs handling this kind of thing, not ex-politicians getting a nice pre-retirement gig or donors who bought themselves a several-year government paid vacation in a foreign country. Ambassadorships should be for diplomats, not hacks.

Whether Dem or Rep, I should add

Agreed. I've never understood why this part of the "spoils system" has been retained over a century after the first civil service reforms began.

[Ebowed]

This is a perfect illustration of the wider Trump governing strategy at work.

No thought has been given to the lives of these diplomats.  In an unprecedented move, they are scrambling to get residence permits to stay in their posted countries and make arrangements for their children's education.

Putting civil servants in jeopardy is a small price to pay for the opportunity to sell off these posts to whoever has made the right connection with Trump and his tribe of nepotists and sycophants.  We are witnessing the makings of the single most corrupt presidential administration yet seen.  It is no longer feasible to expect that Trump's ineptitude and incompetence will prevent anything nefarious from occurring.  This is precisely the atmosphere in which pay-to-play, blackmail, and bribery will flourish, and the consequences will be far-reaching.

The negative associations that will be caused by the growing list of blunders will long outlive Trump's administration, and will irreparably harm the standing of the United States globally.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This is a perfect illustration of the wider Trump governing strategy at work.

No thought has been given to the lives of these diplomats.  In an unprecedented move, they are scrambling to get residence permits to stay in their posted countries and make arrangements for their children's education.

Putting civil servants in jeopardy is a small price to pay for the opportunity to sell off these posts to whoever has made the right connection with Trump and his tribe of nepotists and sycophants.  We are witnessing the makings of the single most corrupt presidential administration yet seen.  It is no longer feasible to expect that Trump's ineptitude and incompetence will prevent anything nefarious from occurring.  This is precisely the atmosphere in which pay-to-play, blackmail, and bribery will flourish, and the consequences will be far-reaching.

The negative associations that will be caused by the growing list of blunders will long outlive Trump's administration, and will irreparably harm the standing of the United States globally.

A lot of appointed ambassadors are big money donors and certainly not civil servants.

[DavidB.]

While I do share some of Ebowed's concerns here, I am mainly amused Dan Shapiro will have to start packing right now. Hope he won't let the door hit him on the way out and also hope he gets the Margot Wallström treatment if he ever wants to return to the country he and his president hate so much.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

This is a perfect illustration of the wider Trump governing strategy at work.

No thought has been given to the lives of these diplomats.  In an unprecedented move, they are scrambling to get residence permits to stay in their posted countries and make arrangements for their children's education.

Putting civil servants in jeopardy is a small price to pay for the opportunity to sell off these posts to whoever has made the right connection with Trump and his tribe of nepotists and sycophants.  We are witnessing the makings of the single most corrupt presidential administration yet seen.  It is no longer feasible to expect that Trump's ineptitude and incompetence will prevent anything nefarious from occurring.  This is precisely the atmosphere in which pay-to-play, blackmail, and bribery will flourish, and the consequences will be far-reaching.

The negative associations that will be caused by the growing list of blunders will long outlive Trump's administration, and will irreparably harm the standing of the United States globally.

In this case, if it makes playing at being ambassador less attractive to political donors, Trump's rashness will only help the U.S. in the long run.  That isn't to say that in general I'm leery of what Trump will be doing, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, even if it's nt for the reason we want clocks to be right.

[Xing]

More evidence that his presidency is nothing but a giant middle finger to Obama. Which I bet feels orgasmic to some people, but if this presidency screws us all over, we'll know who to blame.

[Ljube]

More evidence that his presidency is nothing but a giant middle finger to Obama. Which I bet feels orgasmic to some people, but if this presidency screws us all over, we'll know who to blame.

You know what Trump is gonna tell to all of these so called ambassadors?

"You're fired!"

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Will Carmen Ortiz get fired, too? She really deserves it for destroying Aaron Swartz's life.

[Tender Branson]

Meh ... Alexa Wesner has been an outstanding ambassador to Austria.





F**k Trump.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Meh ... Alexa Wesner has been an outstanding ambassador to Austria.





F**k Trump.

For want of a nail...

[dead0man]

I was wondering when you guys were going to piss your pants over ~10 political appointed families having to move sooner than expected.  OH NOES!  Ambassador aren't the people that help Americans in need overseas, doubly so political appointees in friendly countries. 

Now go back and watch the sheep, no more talk of wolves when there are no wolves.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Given Obama's active attempts to sabotage Trump's future foreign policy and the fact that his ambassadors will likely be continuing to carry out his agenda even after he's gone, this strikes me as common sense.

[MasterJedi]

More evidence that his presidency is nothing but a giant middle finger to Obama. Which I bet feels orgasmic to some people, but if this presidency screws us all over, we'll know who to blame.

Anything that happens in the next 4-8 years will be blamed on Obama and believed, even with full control of the Presidency and Congress anything wrong can't be blamed on them.

[bagelman]

Poor Caroline Kennedy.

Absolute last person who needs any sympathy

[Shadows]

You have to be really stupid to even defend this, you must have given up on all humanity.

While Trump's son barron or whatever stays in DC with Melania, the same courtesy won't be given to the children of foreign ambassadors? Why?

This guy has no dignity. He could have given these people 2-3 months more while he phases in his own people. Now many of them will be scrambling to shift their children, some will have to stay back at a private capacity for a few months @ high costs & highly logistical problems!

[The Dowager Mod]

Corporal combover is being a petty douche what a surprise!

[ingemann]

I like the American ambassador to Denmark, but outside personal like of individual ambassadors why should anyone care? If you people have a spoils system, you should expect a man like Trump to use it to its largest extent.

[JJC]

Given Obama's active attempts to sabotage Trump's future foreign policy and the fact that his ambassadors will likely be continuing to carry out his agenda even after he's gone, this strikes me as common sense.