How many times over the next several years are we going to respond to something PEOTUS Trump is or will be doing and know it’s unprecedented? And not very presidential either? How often will we hear him say something so juvenile, so outrageous, so so so… CRAZY!
Yesterday we had only two diaries about a story that should have had IMHO all day coverage on all the news channels.
trump to ambassadors: you're fired!
and
What a jackhole: Trump orders ambassadors to yank their kids out of school and come home ASAP
They both cited the same source a NYT article that called the move unprecedented. In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS JAN. 5, 2017
President elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.
The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case by case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 with a mission of dismantling many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements.
I’m personally acquainted with someone who could have taken an ambassadorship after his retirement from the CIA. He had had Presidential appointments via the State Dept. from Truman to Carter. He served in some dicey locations during his tenure. He served with political appointees (from both parties) and career diplomats. They all served at the pleasure of their President and they all understood that was the case. But they also understood there are/were precedents and protocols. These precedents and protocols could vary by country based upon the culture etc.
What Trump and his transition team are doing isn’t just petty (and believe me it is pettiness driving this) it dangerous. As a civilian I understand it’s dangerous and I’m beside myself with rage and disbelief at how stupid, callous and irresponsible this move is. I can only imagine how the professionals are reacting. Actually I think they may handle it well, but only because they are professionals and they have training and years of experience to guide them.
Besides the hearings to appoint new ambassadors, the newly appointed ambassadors have to be prepared for their assignments. (call it ambassador school if you will). All of this takes time. The time is usually covered by the outgoing administrations ambassadors with clear dates of transitions. Now we may have critical ambassadorships sitting empty for months.
What’s scary is during this time, the confusion of who’s in charge poses risk. The types of risk and the severity of those risk aren’t where you and I might think. And since DJT isn’t taking Intelligence briefings, he hasn’t a clue either.
The door to another major event has widened even more. Is it ignorance or malice that has caused it?