President-elect Trump’s transition team has reportedly ordered all ambassadors appointed by President Obama to leave their posts by the time the billionaire is sworn in — no exceptions.
That plan could leave the United States without Senate-confirmed diplomats in critical countries for months.
But several American diplomats familiar with the order told the New York Times that Trump’s team will not allow any extensions.
A senior Trump transition official said the move was to ensure that Obama’s overseas diplomats leave their government jobs as scheduled, just as federal government employees in the U.S. are required to do.
Several diplomats said they’re now rushing to find housing and acquire visas allowing them to stay in the countries where their families live and children attend school.
“I don’t recollect there was ever a guillotine in January where it was just, ‘Everybody out of the pool immediately,'” said Ronald Neumann, the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a nonprofit association for former ambassadors and senior diplomats.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama all allowed diplomats to stay in their overseas posts past Inauguration Day on a case-by-case basis.
According to the New York Times, “political” ambassadors — often big donors — usually leave their posts at the end of a president’s term, but career diplomats have remained past inauguration.
