Several senior career diplomats asked to resign ahead of Trump’s inauguration

Many senior career diplomats are resigning from the State Department before Trump’s inauguration as the President of the United States on Monday (Jan 20).

A number of veterans of the US Foreign Service were told to leave by the incoming Trump administration as they will no longer be needed, The Washington Post reported citing three officials familiar with the matter. 

These include those working as undersecretaries and in other high-level positions such as John Bass, the State Department’s acting undersecretary for political affairs, and Geoff Pyatt, the assistant secretary for energy resources.

Requesting the resignations of top officials is the standard of any incoming administration, although some presidents keep longtime diplomats until they are replaced by other appointees. The move highlights a desire for a quick change in the composition of the State Department as Trump seeks to overturn global diplomacy.

A report by Fox News said that Trump is planning to hire about 20 senior bureau officials to take over the positions that are being vacated. Some of those officials include who worked in the State Department and the National Security Council during the president-elect’s first term in the White House.

“It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek officials who share President Trump’s vision for putting our nation and America’s working men and women first,” said a spokesperson for the transition team, as cited by The Washington Post. “We have a lot of failures to fix and that requires a committed team focused on the same goals.” 

A diplomat who was asked to resign by Trump’s aides said that his team handled the matter professionally, making it clear that the request wasn’t personal.

“They want to have people in place whom they’ve worked with before who are known quantities,” the official said, according to the report.

Trump is also planning to suspend the security clearances of 51 national security officials linked with the Hunter Biden laptop issue on his first day as president.

The moves are part of the 200 executive orders that Trump plans to sign on his first day in office. They involve border security and domestic energy production, while others are focused on reducing the costs of living for American families and ending DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes across the federal government.