Trump has given record proportion of ambassador jobs to his own backers

USA - Donald Trump has gifted a record proportion of ambassadorial posts to political appointees, rewarding wealthy supporters with minimal experience at the expense of career diplomats, according to the latest figures.

About 44 percent of US ambassadors nominated by Trump have been political appointees, compared with a historical average of about 30 percent, according to the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). That percentage is getting higher. Out of the ambassador nominations so far this year, 57 percent have gone to political appointees.

The dramatic

increase

of top posts being given to wealthy entrepreneurs like Lana Marks – a handbag designer made US ambassador to South Africa last year – could violate the law, which requires most ambassadorial posts to go to state department diplomats, and for ambassadors to have relevant experience.

Brett Bruen, a former US diplomat and former head of global engagement in the White House, said the number of ambassadorial openings for career diplomats was even smaller in the list of job openings being circulated this summer.

The

Bureau

of

Western

Hemisphere Affairs, covering the Americas, has only one ambassadorship on the list, Nicaragua, open to foreign service officers, Bruen said. Citing state department sources, he said that though there were 20 vacancies in Africa this year, the number of ambassador posts in Europe and Asia open to career diplomats was “dramatically down”.

The Foreign Service Act of 1980 requires that most ambassadors should be career foreign service officers, that political appointments should be a rarity, and that all appointees should be fully qualified for their positions.

“We are concerned that the percentage of political appointees is higher than at any time in recent history, and also with the number of nominees who do not appear to be qualified for their positions,” Eric Rubin, the AFSA president, said.

He urged the US Senate to scrutinise the qualifications of nominees with the aim of returning to the historic norm of between 25 percent and 35 percent of posts being reserved for political appointees.

(The Guardian)