As President Donald Trump prepares for a visit to NATO and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. ambassador to the Baltic nation of Estonia says he has resigned over frustrations with Trump's treatment of Washington’s European allies.
In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville, a career diplomat for 33 years, wrote: “For the President to say EU (European Union) was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”
Excerpts of Melville's statements were reported by The Associated Press and Foreign Policy.
“A Foreign Service Officer’s DNA is programmed to support policy and we’re schooled right from the start, that if there ever comes a point where one can no longer do so, particularly if one is in a position of leadership, the honorable course is to resign," he wrote, according to Foreign Policy. "Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me.”
Melville has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015.
The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn did not immediately comment, the AP reports.
Trump plans to attend a NATO summit in Brussels in July followed by a summit with Putin in Helsinki.
In January, U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley, a career diplomat and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, resigned his post. saying he no longer felt able to serve the president.
“As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies,” Feeley said, according to an excerpt of a resignation letter read to Reuters.
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