Dec 22, 2025
AAD Staff
Washington, D.C. – The American Academy of Diplomacy condemns the large-scale removal of career diplomats from ambassadorial positions.
The president has the absolute right to nominate and remove ambassadors. Every previous president has recognized the national utility of maintaining experienced career diplomats in numerous posts, particularly those that are remote, or which confront complex political, economic, or strategic situations.
The Trump Administration is now suddenly ordering approximately 30 career diplomats serving as ambassadors around the world to depart their posts before the end of January. No replacements have been named. Many are in small posts with few other senior officers. Yet small posts can pose risks to American security from terrorism to plagues. Without experienced, knowledgeable ambassadors in countries both friend and foe, we are jeopardizing America’s national and economic security. It is also a loss to the future of American diplomacy, since many of the ambassadors being removed are those who would most likely be our nation’s top diplomats in the future.
There is no need for this self-inflicted wound to American security, nor for the cruelty of suddenly disrupting families on the eve of holidays. The Academy urges that it be reversed.
The American Academy of Diplomacy is a non-profit, non-partisan, and nongovernmental organization of former U.S. Ambassadors and other senior American foreign policy leaders, who have served multiple presidents from both political parties. The Academy’s interest and purpose is the effectiveness of American foreign policy and the diplomacy that implements it. The Academy is dedicated to strengthening the professionalism of diplomacy and explaining its importance to the American people. This statement was issued with the approval of the Academy’s Board of Directors.