Breaking with long-time tradition, President Joe Biden won't be handing cushiony ambassadorships to his top donors. In the past, most presidents on both sides of the aisle reward their most influential donors and loyalists with ambassador positions in countries they know little about.
Axios reported Sunday evening that the Biden administration intends to "trim" the practice, "hinting he'll nominate fewer of them than his predecessors."
During former President Donald Trump's administration, it was revealed that more than 90 percent of his ambassadors went to white and 73.9 percent were male. It's a statistic Biden is trying to stay away from. Just under half of Trump's nominees to the top foreign service posts were for political appointees and not career foreign service experts.
Instead, positions will primarily be given to more experienced loyalists and former officials. Former Department of National Security Advisor and Foreign Policy contributor Julianne Smith is being discussed as ambassador to NATO.
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who previously served as the Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is being considered for an ambassador post in western Europe.
Big Biden donor Robert Iger, the Disney executive chairman, has indicated he wants a Chinese ambassadorship as one example.
However, Axios reported that "Biden will likely make non-career nominations for about 30% of the roughly 190 total ambassadorships, leaving 70% for the career Foreign Service, according to people familiar with the matter."
The news comes ahead of Biden's first trip to the State Department on Monday.
