
The Trump administration is pulling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy positions as it attempts to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel considered to fully support President Donald Trump's "America First" priorities, foreign media report.
Mission chiefs in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their terms would end in January, according to two State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel movements.
All of them had taken their posts in the Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Trump's second term that targeted mostly political appointees. That changed on Wednesday when they began receiving notices from officials in Washington of their impending departures.
Ambassadors serve at the president's pleasure, though they typically stay in their posts for three to four years. Those affected by the reorganization are not losing their foreign service jobs but will return to Washington for other assignments if they wish to take them, officials said.
The State Department declined to comment on the specific numbers or ambassadors affected, but defended the changes, calling them "a standard process in any administration."