41 countries don’t have US ambassador

Help wanted: Ambassadors.

The job posting could be hung outside of 41 of 188 U.S. embassies and international organizations that still lack an ambassador since President Donald Trump took office.

The vacancies mean dozens of U.S. missions rely on the State Department’s career foreign service officers, who may be less influential than ambassadors, to represent American interests.

At this point in his presidency, Barack Obama, had 21 vacancies, or 12 percent, on his ambassadorial roster. Trump’s vacancy rate is 21 percent.

Trump does not have a hand-picked representative in South Korea, which faces nuclear-armed North Korea. He has no envoy in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally that helps stabilize the Middle East stable and counterbalances Iran’s influence.

There’s no ambassador defending the U.S. in Turkey, where President Recip Tayyip Erdogan blames the U.S. for an attempted 2016 coup. And Trump has no personal envoy to the European Union, as the continent struggles with far-right nationalist movements and Russian aggression.

The U.S. also still needs ambassadors in Germany, Cuba and Egypt.

The State Department promotes its diplomats from within, like in the military. It pulls its top ranks — ambassador and the second-in-command deputy chief of mission — from veterans with years of experience.