According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

In 2015, Laloniu served as Tuvalu’s first high commissioner in New Zealand. As a diplomat from an island nation, he applauded the U.S. agreement to the Paris Climate Accords. But now he'll be dealing with a U.S. administration that has pulled out of the accords, increasing odds of flooding in his country. "For Tuvalu...we are already suffering from climate and sea level rise," he said. "Living with fear and uncertainty on a daily basis is not our normal way of life nor should it be anybody’s.”   read more

Two years after being made head of educational affairs for the Royal Family Council, Al Khaifa. became director of education and the Social Affairs Directorate. In 2007, he was named director of planning and followup for the General Organization for Youth and Sports and the following year became the its human resources director. In 2010, Al Khalifa was appointed to a four-year term as governor of Bahrain’s Southern Governorate, the largest such political division.   read more

While serving as his nation’s deputy secretary of foreign affairs in 1996, Sisilo was reportedly part of a government delegation that was briefly abducted at gunpoint by Papua New Guineans who had crossed into Solomon Islands territory. He later served as permanent representative of the Pacific Islands Forum, an organization comprised of 18 Pacific Island countries, to the World Trade Organization. From 2008 to 2010, he was acting secretary for foreign affairs and trade of neighboring Nauru.   read more

In 2000, Ghana's president appointed Adjei-Barwuah to a plum diplomatic post—ambassador to Japan, with concurrent accreditation to four other nations. Adjei-Barwuah served seven years in the post, leaving temporarily in 2007 to run for President of Ghana, and left permanently before the election, which he lost. Out of work, he was accused in 2009 of misappropriating funds donated by a Japanese chocolate firm. He denied the allegations and suffered no legal consequences.   read more

As secretary general of Slovenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vidovič negotiated a 2016 deal for Slovenia to gain control of six former Yugoslav diplomatic buildings in Brazil, Morocco, Tanzania and Mali that Slovenia was supposed to get under the terms of the 2001 accord specifying the terms of Yugoslavia’s breakup. Vidovič is one of the founding members of the SMC—Slovenia’s Modern Centre Party—a center-left organization. He is also Slovenia’s ambassador to Mexico.   read more

In 2001, Beleffi moved into the diplomatic world as deputy permanent representative to the Council of Europe, which works to uphold human rights, democracy, rule of law in Europe and promote European culture. Beleffi was named ambassador to Germany in 2007. In 2008, he added the post of deputy permanent representative to the United Nations to his portfolio and in 2011 was additionally named ambassador to Canada.   read more

A longtime Republican, Buchan backed Trump for president after other GOP candidacies imploded. He co-hosted a $25,000-a-person fundraiser at the home of future Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross so donors could meet Trump and RNC Chairman Priebus. Buchan and his wife donated $898,000 to Trump Victory, accompanied Trump to rallies, the Republican Convention, and all three presidential debates. On inauguration day, they attended church with Trump and sat nearby as he was sworn-in as president.   read more

Badrising joined Suriname’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989, then moved to the office of Suriname’s president in 1998. She was senior adviser and chief coordinator for international affairs under three presidents. In 2010, she also served as assistant coordinator for free and fair elections. She came to Washington in 2011 as ambassador to the Organization of American States and represented Suriname at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.   read more

Inch was sent overseas to Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2013 until 2014, as deputy commanding general and then commanding general of Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, which was responsible for prisoner operations after control of U.S.-run prisons had been transferred to Afghan authorities. According to a UN report, between February 2013 and December 2014, 35% of prisoners held in Afghanistan reported being subjected to mistreatment or torture, which the UN considered an improvement.   read more

After three years as a refugee coordinator in a danger zone in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Hushek served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kolonia, Micronesia, in the Pacific, from 2002 to 2004. Later, after a stint in Washington, he returned to Afghanistan as the director for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in Kabul from 2012 to 2013, and then served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna from 2013 to 2015.   read more

As Mitch McConnell's policy advisor, Chatterjee took a leading role in fighting any policies that might lead to a reduction in the use of coal, as that industry has been a major supporter of McConnell. Chatterjee backed the Keystone pipeline and opposed Obama regulations from the EPA. In 2016, he warned that if a Republican regained the White House, the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement that Obama had signed, which is exactly what happened when Donald Trump became president.   read more

After serving in Beijing, Kritenbrink, in 2015, was put in a key role, serving as Asia policy adviser to the National Security Council. In the waning days of the Obama administration, Kritenbrink addressed such issues as North Korea’s nuclear program, the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo on Vietnam and China’s construction of islands in the South China Sea. His last assignment before his nomination to be ambassador was senior adviser for North Korean policy.   read more

Fossil-fuel giant Exxon Mobil has knowingly misled the public for nearly 40 years about the dangers of climate change, according to a new study. Researchers found “gaping, systematic discrepancy” between what Exxon said about climate change in private and in academic circles and what it said to the public. The study found Exxon "contributed to advancing climate science—by way of its scientists’ academic publications—but promoted doubt about it in advertorials."   read more

As acting coordinator for counterterrorism, Siberell charged in 2016 that Iran was the leading government sponsor of terrorism. In 2017, he said that the majority of the world's 2016 terrorist attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Under Siberell’s watch, Cuba was dropped from the report for the first time in 33 years. Siberell also led the secret briefing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on “Beyond Iraq and Syria: ISIS' Global Reach.”   read more

A Dutch American born in the Netherlands, Hoekstra will soon find himself at odds with his homeland as President Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands. On a broad range of issues, including marriage equality, gay and transgender rights, marijuana use, NATO spending, anti-terrorism, refugees and immigration, and trade, Hoekstra and Trump hold views opposed by most Dutch and by their government. Hoekstra’s bizarre and false comments about the Netherlands already raised concerns there in 2015.   read more

Representing the U.S. at the UN, Sison found herself in the thick of the action in 2016 when the Obama administration clashed with the Russian government over the war in Syria. In 2017, she made it clear the Trump administration did not intend to contribute to a UN trust fund to fight Haiti’s cholera epidemic because the U.S. had already contributed more than $100 million to the anti-cholera effort. She also accused South Sudan of using man-made famine as a tactic in that country’s civil war.   read more