Democrats urge Trump to reverse mass ambassador recalls

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Democratic senators urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to reverse a recall of nearly 30 career ambassadors, warning the move leaves a dangerous leadership vacuum that allows adversaries like Russia and China to expand their influence.

The Trump administration in recent days has ordered career diplomats serving across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America back to Washington to ensure U.S. missions abroad reflect its “America First” priorities.

The State Department did not indicate how or when it would replace the ambassadors. A senior department official on Monday said the recalls were “a standard process in any administration.”

But the 10 Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who penned the letter to Trump said the abrupt mass recalls were an “unprecedented move” that no other administration has undertaken since Congress established the modern Foreign Service a century ago and that there was no plan to replace the envoys with qualified candidates.

The removals bring the number of empty U.S. ambassadorial posts to well over 100, about half of all such posts worldwide, the senators said in their letter seen by Reuters. They said 80 posts had been vacant before the decision.

“As the over 100 U.S. embassies lacking senior leadership await a new U.S. ambassador, China, Russia and others will maintain regular communications with the foreign leaders that we will have effectively abandoned, allowing our adversaries to expand their reach and influence to limit, and even harm, U.S. interests,” Democrats said in their letter.

The White House referred questions on the letter to the State Department. A spokesperson for the department did not address questions on the contents of the letter but accused Democrats of blocking ambassadors’ appointments.

“Senate Democrats engaged in unprecedented obstruction of President Trump’s nominees, including ambassadors and other senior diplomats,” the spokesperson said.

Republicans, who control the Senate, changed the rules in September in response to what they say was Democrats slowing the installation of Trump’s picks to many government positions.

SENATORS SAY VACANCIES WOULD AID CHINA AND RUSSIA

In Wednesday’s letter, the Democratic senators, who included Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen as well as Chris Murphy and others, provided examples of how Washington would lack top-level U.S. presence in crucial locations as Beijing and Moscow make inroads.

In regions from the Indo-Pacific to Africa and the Balkans as well as Latin America, Washington would be on the back foot countering China’s expanding economic reach, the senators said. The recall leaves the United States without a high-level presence in more than half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

“These ambassadors have demonstrated their commitment to faithfully execute the policies of administrations of both parties for decades,” the senators said. “We urge you to reverse this decision immediately before more damage is done to America’s standing in the world.”

TRUMP WANTS LOYALISTS IN KEY ROLES

Political appointees leave their posts when a new administration takes office but career diplomats, while serving at the pleasure of the president, are often considered bipartisan and typically serve three to four years in their overseas posts regardless of a change in government.

But Trump has long been suspicious of the bureaucracy and has repeatedly pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats whom he deems disloyal and placing loyalists in senior roles.

In February, Trump ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp the U.S. foreign service to ensure that the Republican president’s foreign policy is faithfully implemented.

In July, the Trump administration fired more than 1,300 State Department diplomats and civil servants as Washington grappled with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia’s war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran.

The department’s workforce reduction in the U.S. totaled roughly 3,000 after deferred resignations and early retirements, accounting for more than 11% of its total foreign and civil service officers.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Edmund Klamann)