They look like an unlikely, almost motley crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, they have a former NFL star in Herschel Walker. His fledgling Senate campaign was marred by a series of personal scandals, but he has now been named the small island nation’s next U.S. ambassador.
The prestigious diplomatic post in Paris will include Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former Republican New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor Chris Christie, whom the president-elect pardoned for a felony. is added. He called it “one of the most disgusting and disgusting crimes” he had ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once the specialty of the veteran diplomat, is the woman who until recently was the girlfriend of President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and is known more for her tumultuous media profile than for her diplomatic acumen. Kimberly Guilfoyle goes.
The three are among a flurry of ambassadorial candidates announced in recent weeks as President Trump rushes to fill his administration with special envoys to project his “America First” ideology overseas. .
Their lack of qualifications led one experienced foreign policy analyst to call them “diplomatic clown vehicles,” a deliberate insult to the countries hosting them.
Since winning last month’s election, the president-elect has appointed ambassadors at a faster rate than in recent memory, including five in one day this week.
There are some people who are conspicuous by their lack of training in diplomatic skills. There are also business connections that experts say pose a risk of conflict of interest.
Unlike most countries, where the role of ambassador comes from the ranks of professional diplomats, the US president typically rewards allies and donors with ambassadorial work, with award posts such as those in London and Paris The office is almost always given to an oval man’s friend.
But Mr. Trump broke new ground with the sheer number of ambassador candidates and the lack of consideration of ambassadors’ professional suitability.
“It’s not unusual for a president to have a number of politically appointed ambassadors early in his term,” said Dennis Jett, a professor of international relations at Penn State University and author of a book on the history of U.S. ambassadorships.
“But I don’t remember any president-elect announcing as many ambassadorial appointments as this guy. They usually don’t step down to the ambassadorship until they actually sit in the White House.
“The other thing to note is that everyone is incredibly underqualified. No one thinks, ‘Right now, there’s someone who’s extremely qualified.'”
Trump is not the first US president to introduce miscast candidates. President Barack Obama’s pick for special envoy to Norway, George Tunis, withdrew his nomination in 2014 after his Senate confirmation revealed embarrassing ignorance about the country and its political system. Mr. Tunis was subsequently nominated by Joe Biden to serve as ambassador to Greece (he currently serves as ambassador to Greece).
But few presidents have attempted to do so in a way that makes a mockery of the polite salons of international diplomacy.
Walker, Kushner, and Guilfoyle are not the only clearly unsuitable envoy candidates.
President Trump has nominated Matt Whitaker, who served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first presidency and has a background in law enforcement, to be ambassador to NATO, a military alliance he has repeatedly disparaged in public.
For Turkey, a key NATO ally and a strategic player in Syria’s political turmoil following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, he is a close friend and billionaire real estate tycoon. , appointed Tom Barrack, who served as chairman of the 2017 inaugural committee. Barrack was acquitted in 2022 of acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the United Arab Emirates and lying to the FBI during the first Trump administration.
Thomas Countryman, who served as assistant secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said the nominations raised concerns not only about conflicts of interest but also about the quality of U.S. foreign policy in key areas.
“There is only so much damage an unqualified person like Herschel Walker can do to the Bahamas,” he said.
“But having someone with little diplomatic or managerial experience negotiating some of the most difficult issues that Europe and the United States must face together in a place like the NATO Permanent Mission creates misunderstandings. And clearly we were unable to reach the necessary agreements and compromises.”
As for Mr. Barrack, “it will be difficult to separate Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Barrack’s private interests from the professional work that Mr. Barrack will need to do in Ankara, especially because of the opacity. I think so,” he added.
Even before he took office, Trump had sowed chaos by threatening to impose tariffs on the country’s closest neighbors, Mexico and Canada, and his comments have caused shockwaves. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces calls for his resignation after President Trump mocked him by calling Canada a “province” and Trudeau a “governor” and not taking a strong enough stance. There is.
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Surprisingly, President Trump chose relatively experienced individuals to be ambassadors to both countries. Pete Hoekstra, who served as ambassador to the Netherlands during the first president of the United States and also chaired the House of Commons intelligence committee, has been selected as ambassador to Ottawa. Regarding Mexico, the president-elect has nominated Ron Johnson, a former CIA official who previously served as ambassador to El Salvador.
In fact, not all of President Trump’s ambassadorial nominees are high-profile enough to potentially embarrass them.
George Glass, a former ambassador to Portugal and an investment banker known for his anti-China stance, has been appointed ambassador to Japan.
Regarding China, the next president has chosen David Perdue, a former Republican senator from Georgia.
But Jett said the overall quality was the worst ever, naming Mike Huckabee, the candidate for ambassador to Israel, as the worst candidate. Mr. Huckabee, an avowed Christian Zionist, denies that the West Bank is under military occupation (a situation widely recognized in the international community) and is not an interlocutor for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It seems unlikely.
Jett, a former ambassador to Mozambique and Peru, said: “These outrageously bad appointments are common to all presidents.” “But the great thing about Trump is he’s like, ‘Okay, who’s the worst person we can come up with?’ We’re going out of our way to prove that we’re not a serious country.” It seems like it is.”
Compounding the problem, he said, is the U.S. practice of effectively selling off the most prestigious ambassadorships in exchange for campaign contributions. This is a practice that appears to have the potential for flagrant abuse, given Trump’s transactional nature.
In a long-standing but often ignored practice attributed to a 1980 act of Congress, 70% of U.S. ambassadorships are reserved for career diplomats, with “political ” No more than 30% will be allocated to the appointee.
The percentage of “political” ambassadors in Trump’s first administration soared to 46%, but Jett predicted that number would be surpassed during his next term.
Laura Kennedy, a former ambassador in both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the Senate is responsible for vetting nominees and rejecting those who are clearly unsuitable.
“What’s really important and has always been part of this business is the Senate giving advice and consent,” she said. “My real plea is that the Senate takes its responsibility seriously, evaluates each nominee on its merits, and does not hesitate to withhold consent.”
But while the Senate hasn’t formally rejected an ambassadorial nominee since the 19th century, senators are more likely to deploy informal delaying tactics to block nominees, as happened with some of Biden’s choices. Common.
But veteran Washington foreign policy analyst Joe Cirincione dismissed the possibility of a Senate pushback, instead blaming Democrats, and Biden in particular, for not sounding the alarm.
“The diplomatic clown’s car is rolling into the Capitol with idiots waiting for approval. But where’s the anger?” he said.
“Democrats just rolled over on their bellies for alpha dogs, but Biden has disappeared. He should have been sounding the alarm. For each of these, a firm criticism that this is unacceptable. should be given.
“Both Republicans and Democrats are abandoning their traditional oversight roles. They are agreeing to President Trump’s nominees in advance without rigorous vetting.”
