Steven Kashkett, a former career diplomat, is blasting the Trump administration, for pushing out foreign service veterans.
He made his comments in a column posted Friday by USA Today.
“For many of us who have spent our lives serving our country in the foreign service, the Trump administration’s shameless bashing of those who came forward to testify about the Ukraine scandal came as a shock,” said Kashkett, who had served in Poland as the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires until 2016.
“This unprecedented attack on superb career diplomats raised to a frightening new level the White House’s dirty war against the State Department.
“I am a victim of this dirty war. After three decades, my career in the senior foreign service — along with so many others — ended abruptly last year. Some colleagues voluntarily left to protest a president who is making a mockery of U.S. international leadership and driving our foreign policy disastrously off the rails. Others could not work for an administration that callously ignores foreign policy professionals.”
But he said many dedicated to defending U.S. interests throughout the world remained. However, Kashkett said he has watched as the State Department pushed these diplomats out by assigning them “menial tasks or effectively subjecting us to political loyalty tests.”
He said it was a “disgrace to target patriots.”
And he accused the administration of “marginalizing career diplomats.” He said Trump “openly disparages those who proudly remain in service.”
“So far, 44% of Trump's ambassadors are political appointees, many whose main qualification is having contributed a large sum to the Trump inauguration,” he noted.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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