The following column by Joe Davidson was posted on the Washington Post website November 17, 2017:
When President Trump reported on his trip to Asia, he heaped praise on himself and said the nation’s “standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now.”
Using “I” 42 times in his 23-minute speech Wednesday, he declared “NATO, believe me, is very happy with Donald Trump and what I did,” as he touted previous accomplishments.
Trump’s unmatched self-adulation might cloud his view of the hard work by foreign service staffers and their increased difficulties because of his administration’s hiring freeze.
Noting a recent Time magazine cover “with its graphic of wrecking balls and warning of ‘dismantling government as we know it,’ ” American Foreign Service Association President Barbara Stephenson is cautioning against “mounting threats to our institution — and to the global leadership that depends on us.” Continue reading “Foreign Service leadership being ‘decapitated’ and ‘depleted at a dizzying speed’”