US ambassador to Russia needs to quit

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman, I urge you to resign your diplomatic post to Russia in protest of Monday’s disastrous meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I don’t fault you for taking on the ambassadorship. If anything, I took solace in knowing such a pre-eminent figure would represent us in Moscow and serve as a watchman against a govern- ment that so clearly means us ill. And I give you credit for helping to organize the meeting in Helsinki because, at the time, it presented an opportunity to check Russian aggression.

From the president on down, public servants like yourself should put America first. But after Monday, it is no longer clear if Trump’s foreign policy primarily serves American interests and is not instead rooted in his Russia-backed financial interests, fundamentally un-American penchant for authoritarianism, fear of some unknown kompromat or a nauseating combination of all of the above. It is no longer clear if the president of the United States puts America first.

The president’s “clarifying” comments on Tuesday should only further our concern. His “double negative defense” was the most laughable attempt at presidential linguistic gymnastics since President Bill Clinton’s soliloquy on what the definition of “is” is. What’s more, the fact that he is even considering turning over former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul for Russian interrogation is terrifying. If diplomats like yourself are not safe under this administration from the whims of foreign des- pots, then truly no American is safe.

Were you to resign, our nation could suffer should you be succeeded by a sycophant, incompetent, or both. But it would send a clear, timely message to both our allies and foes that moral and principled leadership still has a home in America — a message that perhaps even Trump cannot ignore.

Clifton Yin

Washington, D.C.

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