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  • 2017-01-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Donald Trump Fire All Politically Appointed Ambassadors in an Unprecedented Move? (en)
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  • On 5 January 2016, the New York Times published an article concerning a State Department cable sent to diplomats on 23 December 2016 by President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, informing them that they were to leave their posts prior to Inauguration Day without exception: A State Department official confirmed to Politico that the Trump transition team would not be making any exceptions for ambassadors requesting extensions to remain at their posts. Aggregated versions of the New York Timess report, social media summaries, and a general misunderstanding of what the New York Times had& actually reported led many readers to believe that President-elect Trump had broken precedent when he ordered political ambassadors appointed by President Obama to leave their posts by his inauguration date. However, the precedent at the center of the Times article had to do with whether the incoming president would allow exceptions for outgoing ambassadors who wished to remain in their positions for a period of time past Inauguration Day. While previous administrations have allowed exceptions on a case-by-case basis, the incoming Trump administration broke with that tradition by saying that ambassadors had to leave their posts without exception. Asgeir Sigfusson, a spokesperson for the American Foreign Service Association, was even hesitant to say that Trump's no-extensions policy was unprecedented. Instead, Sigfusson noted that AFSA members had called it unusual, while Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association noted that Trump's policy was atypical: John Kirby, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, also said that the policy was unusual and that previous administrations had granted a handful of exceptions, but he confirmed that political appointees should have no expectation of staying at their posts beyond the term of the president who appointed them: Peter Cianchette, for instance, was made an ambassador to Costa Rica by President George W. Bush in June 2008, and President Obama allowed Cianchette to remain in his position until July 2009. Similarly, Diane E. Watson, who was appointed an ambassador of Micronesia by former President Bill Clinton, remained at her post long after George W. Bush assumed office. We found similar examples of presidents allowing ambassadors appointed by their predecessors to remain at their posts past Inauguration Day for every presidential transition dating back to 1977, when Jimmy Carter succeeded Gerald Ford. When President Obama requested ambassador resignations before the start of his administration in 2009, a State Department official told Agence France-Presse that requests for extensions by political ambassadors would be looked at on a case-by-case basis: (en)
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