Trending 
President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly recalled nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as part of a broader effort to reshape the United States’ diplomatic corps in line with the president’s “America First” agenda.
The chiefs of mission in at least 29 nations were informed last week that their assignments would expire in January, according to two anonymous US Department of State officials who spoke to the Guardian UK.
Those affected are career diplomats who assumed their roles during the previous Joe Biden administration but initially survived an early shake-up at the start of Trump’s second term, which focused largely on political appointees. That changed on Wednesday, when the diplomats began receiving formal notices from Washington, DC, informing them of their impending recall.
“Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, although they typically remain at their posts for between three and four years. Those affected by the shakeup are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them”, the officials said.
The state department officials declined to comment on specific numbers or ambassadors affected but defended the changes, calling them “a standard process in any administration”.
They noted that an ambassador is “a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.”
Africa is the region most affected by the recalls, with ambassadors being removed from 13 countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda.
The Asia-Pacific region follows, with six countries affected: Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In Europe, ambassadors in Armenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia are being recalled. Two countries each are affected in the Middle East, Algeria and Egypt; South Asia—Nepal and Sri Lanka; and the western hemisphere, Guatemala and Suriname.
