President Trump’s transition team asked dozens of high-ranking politicians to resign on Monday, if only Mr.
This trend is common in presidential transitions, but it happened faster and on a larger scale than during the previous administration, the US official said. That means the potential loss of important information on American institutions and world affairs early in the administration.
Trump’s transition team at the State Department is led by aides to Marco Rubio, the Florida senator handpicked by Mr. Trump to replace Antony J. Blinken as secretary of state. Mr. Rubio is expected to be confirmed quickly by the Senate.
Some of the incoming officials are at the level of assistant secretary or higher and hold major offices in the department that focus on global regions or broader issues. Many of those positions were held by political appointees and will be removed, which is expected during a transition. The Trump Transition Team called for the resignation on Friday.
It is not yet clear what kind of jobs veteran politicians, known as foreign service officers, will seek or receive in the coming weeks or months. Career ambassadors are members of a union trying to protect them from being fired from the State Department if that happens improperly.
Every president and their secretary of state nominees replace all or most of the people in those top positions at the beginning of the administration. In some cases, foreign service officers decide to retire, especially after serving for more than twenty years. In some cases, they have held senior positions in the entire department and do not have a clear path to advancement when new managers come in.
Among the top department officials who previously planned to resign is Daniel J. Kritenbrink, a longtime politician who served as assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs in the Biden administration and was a former ambassador to Vietnam. He retired last Friday after 31 years at the State Department.
Ambassadors also offer their resignations, which the incoming president and secretary of state accept in most cases.
Ambassadors have been announcing their departure. Jeffrey Prescott, the political appointee to represent the United States at the United Nations in Rome, wrote on social media about his departure on Monday and his work in the UN food programs while in office.
Like senior officials at the State Department in Washington, ambassadors are a mix of political appointees and career ambassadors. Many political appointees are wealthy donors to the presidential campaign, whether Democratic or Republican, and have little experience in communications or world affairs.
At the confirmation hearing Mr. Rubio last week, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, asked him to leave the ambassadors acting as ambassadors until the new nominees of Mr. Rubio are confirmed.
On January 13, R. Nicholas Burns, the Chinese ambassador, said in an email that he will leave Beijing for Washington and leave the State Department. Mr. Burns had an unusual career: He was a foreign service officer for decades and eventually became the department’s third-in-command. He left to do other jobs, including a teaching position at the Harvard Kennedy School, and then returned to become an ambassador under President Biden.
Mr Burns said he was proud to represent America at a “very difficult and challenging time” in US-China relations.
And he defended the federal government and many of its employees, saying that “we have outstanding men and women in public service” and that “they work hard and often with great sacrifice to stand up for us in difficult situations in China and around the world.”
“I believe they deserve our full support going forward,” he added.