US envoy to Estonia to retire over frustration with Trump

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Europe

The US ambassador to Estonia, James Melville, will retire from the State Department next month, a move he said was prompted by Donald Trump's jibes and treatment of European allies.

CNN says a US State Department spokesperson has confirmed Melville's departure.

The announcement comes ahead of a summit in Brussels of NATO allies on July 11-12, which has been clouded by Trump's angry claims that Europe is exploiting the United States by underspending on defense.

Trump is the main reason

The US embassy in Tallinn said Melville would retire after finishing his three-year assignment in Estonia in late July. But in a private Facebook post first reported by Foreign Policy, the career diplomat said frustration over Trump's barbs had made him decide "it was time to go."

Trump recently told fellow western leaders that the NATO alliance was "as bad as NAFTA" – a North American trade deal that he has threatened to tear up.

US President Donald Trump jokes with French President Emmanuel Macron about their handshakes in front of NATO leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (2nd R) and Belgium King Philippe (L), at the start of the NATO summit at their new headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. /VCG Photo

"A Foreign Service Officer's DNA is programmed to support policy and we're schooled right from the start, that if there ever comes a point where one can no longer do so, particularly if one is in a position of leadership, the honorable course is to resign," Melville's post said, according to the magazine.

"Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me," said Melville, who has worked 33 years in the foreign service. "For the President to say the EU was 'set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,' or that 'NATO is as bad as NAFTA' is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it's time to go," he reportedly wrote in his post.

Continuation of the leaving trend

Melville's upcoming retirement is yet another one of the many departures of high-profile officials who have left their government posts since Donald Trump took office.

Also late Friday, fellow career diplomat Susan Thornton – who Trump had tapped for assistant secretary for East Asian affairs – declared she would retire, according to CNN.

Melville's announcement follows the resignation of several other senior envoys over differences with the Trump administration, including the US ambassador to Panama John Feeley and Elizabeth Shackelford, a prominent US diplomat who was based in Nairobi.

Trump's administration was quick to dismiss the ambassadors who served under his predecessor, but has been slow to refill the diplomatic roster.

His first secretary of state, former oil executive Rex Tillerson, clashed with the White House over nominees and the administration struggled to fill posts.

US President Donald Trump and his former secretary of state Rex Tillerson clashed several times over issues like Russia and the Korean Peninsula, before the latter was fired. /VCG Photo

Tillerson has now been replaced by former CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who has promised to bring some "swagger" back to US diplomacy and now the pace of appointments has picked up.

(Cover: US Ambassador to Estonia James Melville (R) welcomes US Vice President Mike Pence (left) at the airport in Tallinn, Estonia, July 30, 2017. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP