| (Non-US citizen. Very Anti-Trump. Unpaid poster. Unhappy I need to state all this.) To my surprise, jquery is pretty much correct about it being the same thing as Obama did. This[1] is the best summary of the situation I can find: 1) Obama (and all new incoming presidents before him) did ask for the resignations of all non-career, politically appointed ambassadors. 2) Obama (and Bush) did grant extensions to some ambassadors. However, this was a (very) small number. Exactly how many it applied to is unclear, but to quote the the article I linked above: in the past two inter-party transitions (Clinton-Bush, Bush-Obama) only about 10 political ambassadors have gotten extensions. Basically, I'd judge that the reporting of The Independent article linked above is misleadingly critical of Trump. I also think that jquery's point below about Obama literally auctioned off the posts is incomplete. Most ambassadorships are given as rewards (by both US parties). Most countries do the same: ambassadorships to friendly countries are political rewards and the countries actually want someone who is close to the leader of the country they represent. I don't think the moral case against that is entirely clear, but I can see arguments both ways. [1] https://diplopundit.net/2017/01/06/foreign-service-tradition... |