3/9/2018

AMBASSADOR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The outgoing US ambassador to Panama issued a scathing critique of President Donald Trump and his foreign policies in an op-ed, saying that a betrayal of ‘the traditional core values of the United States’ led to his resignation.
‘I resigned because the traditional core values of the United States, as manifested in the President’s National Security Strategy and his foreign policies, have been warped and betrayed,’ John Feeley, whose resignation takes effect Friday, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
Feeley said that impetus for his resignation came from Trump’s failure to strongly condemn white supremacists for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer that left one dead… Feeley blasted a number of Trump’s policy initiatives, including his proposed travel ban and southern border wall, his elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, his withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate deal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as “making the United States weaker and less prosperous.’… The outgoing diplomat argues that Trump voters ‘deserve better’ than the campaign rhetoric they were promised…
Feeley was a career diplomat who was sworn in as ambassador in January 2016. He submitted his resignation letter to the White House in late December 2017, according to Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steven Goldstein… A State Department spokesperson said Deputy Chief of Mission Roxanne Cabral will step in until a new ambassador is confirmed. Panama will join the dozens of countries that do not currently have Senate-confirmed US ambassadors in place.”

-Jennifer Hansler, “Outgoing US ambassador to Panama blasts Trump,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Mar. 9, 2018 09:35am