Over the past two weeks, approximately 30 ambassadors received phone calls from the State Department notifying them, without further explanation, that they must vacate their posts and return to Washington in January.

These are mostly career diplomats who assumed their positions during the Joe Biden administration and who, traditionally, usually remain until the end of their term, regardless of changes in government.

In the United States, there are two types of ambassadors: political appointees, close to the current president, and career diplomats, Foreign Service officers with decades of experience.

It is common for a new president to immediately replace political appointees, but not career ambassadors, who are considered professional servants of the state, not of a political party.

Senate warning and alarm over embassies “without a head”

The strongest reaction came from the Senate. A dozen Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Trump asking him to reconsider the measure. In the document, they warn that the mass exodus of ambassadors will leave more than half of U.S. diplomatic missions without a head. “There were already 80 ambassadorial posts vacant before this order. Now, the number of embassies without leadership will exceed 100, roughly half of all posts worldwide,” the letter states. “This vacuum poses a significant threat to our national security.”The senators added, accusing the president of weakening the United States' presence against strategic rivals such as China and Russia. Although the State Department has not released an official list, local media report that most of the dismissed ambassadors were stationed in countries in Africa and Asia, and to a lesser extent in Europe and Latin America. Among the cases mentioned is that of the ambassador to Guatemala, Tobin Bradley. “America First” and Breaking Historical Norms: From the White House, officials have defended the decision as part of a restructuring aligned with the “America First” agenda. Trump has repeatedly stated that the public administration is dominated by what he calls the “deep state,” which he accuses of sabotaging his policies with a progressive agenda. The measure comes on top of the cuts implemented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently dismissed more than 1,300 employees and authorized the dismantling of the historic United States Agency for International Development (USAID). However, the diplomats' union, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), denounced the dismissals as abrupt and irregular. “Career diplomats and ambassadors are not usually dismissed in this way. The lack of transparency and due process radically contradicts traditional norms,” a spokesperson for the organization stated. Eric Rubin, a retired career diplomat and former AFSA president, similarly pointed out that more than half of U.S. embassies will not have a confirmed ambassador, which he described as “a “A grave insult to the affected countries and a huge gift to China.”

“This has never happened in the 101-year history of the U.S. Foreign Service,” Rubin told CNN. “Ambassadors serve at the president’s discretion. But every president has kept the majority of career ambassadors in their posts until their successors are confirmed by the Senate.”

Other former diplomats and experts warn that the forced removal of these officials could lead to early retirements, with the consequent loss of some of the Foreign Service’s most experienced personnel.

For its critics, the purge not only breaks with more than a century of diplomatic practices but also weakens U.S. influence at a time of rising global tensions.