U.S. President-elect
Donald Trump's transition team has issued a blanket mandate for politically
appointed ambassadors installed by President Barack Obama to leave their posts
by Inauguration Day, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand said on Friday.
"I will be
departing on January 20th," Ambassador Mark Gilbert said in a Twitter
message to Reuters.
The mandate was issued
"without exceptions" through an order sent in a State Department
cable on Dec. 23, Gilbert said.
He was confirming a report in
the New York Times, which quoted diplomatic sources as saying previous U.S.
administrations, from both major political parties, have traditionally granted
extensions to allow a few such ambassadors, particularly those with school-age
children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
State Department spokesman
John Kirby said it was "common" procedure for all
politically-appointed ambassadors to step down as a new U.S. administration
comes in on Jan. 20.
"All political appointees for the Obama
administration were directed to submit their resignation and the due date was
Dec. 7, and the resignations are to take effect on Jan. 20," Kirby told
reporters. "That is common, typical practise ... that's the way it
works."
Kirby said, as expected, no career diplomats serving as ambassadors
had been asked to resign by the transition team.
He acknowledged, however, that in the past there had been
exceptions made for a small number of political appointees to stay on for a
short time for personal reasons. "But that is totally in the prerogative
of the incoming administration," he added.
The order could leave the United States without
Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and
Britain, the New York Times reported.
A senior Trump transition official told the newspaper there
was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring
Obama's overseas envoys leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of
political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do.
Trump has taken a strict stance against leaving any of
Obama's political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20,
aiming to break up many of his predecessor's signature foreign and domestic
policy achievements, the newspaper said.
Diplomats told the New York Times that the order has
thrown their personal lives into a tailspin, leaving them scrambling to secure
living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to stay in their countries
so their children can remain in school.
