The US ambassador to Estonia resigns in frustration with Trump



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The resignation of James D. Melville Jr., first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, made him the third ambassador of last year to leave the State Department very early. He is one of the senior officials of the State Department who have headed for the outings or have been pushed to them since Trump took office.

In a statement, a spokesman for the State Department confirmed the departure of Melville. The ambassador to Estonia, Jim Melville, has announced his intention to withdraw from the foreign service as of July 29 after 33 years of public service, "said the statement in its entirety.

Melville's resignation at a time of heightened tension that prior to Trump's election, she had been one of the strongest, most reliable and interconnected US relations, but Trump's attacks on members of NATO, its refusal of the Iranian nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement and its attacks on leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discredited the European ties with the European Union. 39, Europe

Many European officials are suspicious of Trump's visit to the NATO summit in Belgium in mid-July, fearing that Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after NATO re will appear at the meeting more friendly in comparison.

"The transatlantic relationship, which all around the table, we take for granted, is not a given," a European diplomat told CNN. "We now have a major crisis."

"It's time to go"

Foreign policy quotes a private article on Melville's Facebook page in which the veteran diplomat refers to the President's comments on Europe explaining his decision to retire early.

"The DNA of an outside service officer is programmed to support the policy and we are trained from the outset, that if there comes a time when we can not do it anymore, especially if one is in a position of leadership, the honorable course is to resign, "the magazine quotes Melville's message as saying. "Having served under six presidents and 11 state secretaries, I've never really thought that it would reach me."

"For the president to say that the EU has been" set up to take advantage of the US, attack our piggy bank, "or that" NATO is as bad as NAFTA "is not only factually false, but proves me the announcement of Melville's departure was followed by that of Susan Thornton, Trump's choice of being appointed deputy secretary for Asian business." East, later Friday.

] Two State Department officials said that Thornton had informed staff in an email that she would retire in July.

officials said Thornton, a well-respected career diplomat who has done the work in an acting capacity since Trump took office, has been notified that she will not actually be the candidate and she decided to take her retired.

Former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, pushed very f the appointment of Thornton, despite vigorous reprimands from conservatives on the Capitol and supporters of the administration.

State Secretary Pompeo reached out to Thornton about a month ago during a testimony on Capitol Hill, in which he announced that he would make announcements on the staff including a top diplomat for East Asia.

The duo is only the last foreign service officer to leave in a department where senior officers have been deeply impoverished and even the rising stars have resigned rather than serve the president.

In November, an award-winning American diplomat based in Nairobi then wrote to Tillerson a dreadful letter saying that the Trump administration had diminished the state department's influence with its preference for military solutions.

Elizabeth Shackelford wrote that "despite the disrespect this administration has shown to our profession," State Department diplomats "continue the struggle to keep our foreign policy on the positive trajectory necessary to avoid a global catastrophe. " [19659002]

"Traditional Values ​​… Betrayed"

In her resignation letter, Shackelford told Tillerson that she would "humbly ask that you follow me at the door."

In January , then to the United States. The ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, resigned because of his differences with the Trump administration, saying in his resignation letter that "as a foreign officer, I was sworn in to serve the president and his administration apolitically, even if I do not agree with certain policies. "

" My instructors said that if I thought I could not do that, I would have to to resign, the time has come, "wrote Feeley.
Once he had left his post, Feeley was less circumspect in a Cinglant operated in the Washington Post, saying that he had "resigned because the traditional core values ​​of the United States, such as manifested in the president's national security strategy and foreign policy, have been distorted and betrayed. "
In March, another career diplomat, US Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson, announced his decision to resign because of heightened tensions between the United States and Mexico.

A few days after his announcement, the White House delivered the equivalent of a slap, excluding Jacobson – who served as an ambassador until May – of a meeting in Mexico between the sons of Trump. law and senior advisor Jared Kushner and president Enrique Pena Nieto.

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