‘Uncharted territory’: Reluctant officials fear telling harsh truth to Trump
U.S. diplomats are hesitant to share inconvenient objective assessments with President Donald Trump’s administration, NBC News exclusively reported Thursday.
In late August, the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents the State Department’s workforce, warned against sharing candid advice with administration officials, and noted that diplomats abroad are being asked to return from their assignments “after providing less-than-positive analysis or unwelcome recommendations to leadership,” according to NBC News.
“We are operating in uncharted territory,” the email reads. “The environment facing the Foreign Service today is unlike anything we’ve seen.”
It added: “Even if offered discreetly, any statement, verbal or written, can be politicized and used against you. That is the reality we face.”
Current and former federal employees told the outlet that the latest warning serves as only one example of how civil servants continue to encounter mounting pressure from the White House to minimize information that does not align with the president’s agenda.
“What we’re seeing in the diplomatic corps right now is fear,” John Dinkelman, the president of the American Foreign Service Association, told NBC News.
Dinkelman said that he has received reports from “literally all over the world” of American diplomats who are “reticent to offer up their well trained and well experienced opinions regarding the situation on the ground.”
“And even to propose — heaven forbid — an alternate course of action,” he continued.
He declined to detail the number of individuals who have been reassigned, citing fear of retaliation against his colleagues.
Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the State Department, said that its secretary, Marco Rubio, “values candid insights from patriotic Americans who have chosen to serve their country.”
“In fact, this administration reorganized the entire State Department to ensure those on the front lines — the regional bureaus and the embassies — are in a position to impact policies. What we will not tolerate is people using their positions to actively undermine the duly elected President’s objectives," Pigott said.
The report comes as critics of the president, including Democratic lawmakers, have argued that the administration has retaliated against officials who do not align with its message.
In early August, Trump fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the agency released a weak revised jobs report showing that growth has slowed. He accused her of being a political appointee who manipulated the jobs data.
Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, was also abruptly fired late last month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It followed an initial assessment from June about U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, which found that they had a limited effect — while Trump maintained that the sites were “obliterated.”