At last count, President Donald Trump had named only nine career Foreign Service officers (FSOs) as ambassadors. Six had been confirmed, while three remained waiting for Senate confirmation. That strikingly small number has predictably put the Foreign Service establishment inside the State Department on the warpath.
Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the breakdown was roughly 70 percent career diplomats to 30 percent political appointees. Under Joe Biden, it was about 60–40. Even during the first Trump administration, the split was approximately 55–45. But the second Trump administration is taking a markedly different approach, closely screening each potential career nominee. This has considerably slowed the nomination process, but Trump-friendly State Department insiders say FSO nominees, aligned with administration goals, are in fact being identified. Meanwhile, each embassy without a Senate-confirmed ambassador is being led by an FSO chargé d’affaires.
From the outset, the administration has had two broad foreign-affairs objectives: to integrate national-interest priorities into America’s global engagement and to retool the State Department’s bureaucratic machinery. The fight over the ambassador nominees has to do with both goals. Trump is willing to nominate career ambassadors, but the White House is no longer automatically rubber-stamping and sending the Senate the names produced by the State Department’s traditional internal FSO selection process.
Rumors abound inside Foggy Bottom, but the explanation appears straightforward: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the White House have little confidence in a process too heavily influenced by the Foreign Service old guard. They have no interest in elevating career FSOs who are fundamentally out of step with the administration on foreign assistance, international organizations, visa policy, and other key issues.
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