Guilfoyle resigns as ambassador to Greece – adding to the global vacancies sapping US embassies

Filed 1h ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

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News of Sorrow

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jaed malek BD · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as U.S. ambassador to Greece after Trump asked her to step down, reportedly following allegations she pushed a Republican donor to cover her six-figure credit card bill. Her departure adds to a tally of 93 out of 196 U.S. ambassador posts currently vacant, despite the Senate confirming 10 new ambassadors in late September. Some vacancies have no nominee at all; others sit stalled in a Senate controlled by the president's own party.

The piece notes that roughly 80% of Trump's ambassador nominations have gone to political appointees rather than career diplomats, up from about 40% under the previous two administrations. Appointees cited include a Palm Beach restaurant owner now serving as ambassador to the Philippines. Key posts in Belarus, Bulgaria, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Haiti and Guatemala remain unfilled.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

You can tell a lot about how seriously somebody takes a job by who they hand it to. Putting a restaurant owner from Palm Beach in charge of relations with a treaty ally is like asking the guy who waxes your car to also do your taxes because he was standing nearby and seems friendly. The empty chairs are not an accident, they are the plan working as advertised.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: News of Sorrow · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0