Wait, I thought Herschel was going to be in charge of our new missile defense system?? I can’t keep up…
Growing up in England, he couldn’t do enough damage to his home country. Returning to England, however – replete with a trail of incalculable carnage wrought in the US (his “The Apprentice” made Trump a household name in a nation overrepresented by painfully unengaged, low information households) – he gets another chance.
Good luck, England. Tag. You’re it.
[He’s not nominated to be Ambassador. That’s some other billionaire whose nomination is Senate-confirmable. Burnett’s position – that of envoy – is not Senate-confirmable. He’s in.]
What the heck is a “special envoy to the UK”? I’ve been Googling to see if that’s a normal thing but it does not appear to be.
Well, someone has to look out for the interests of Trump’s golf courses in Upper Kyrgyzstan.
This is nothing new. Shirley Temple, America’s little dancing sweet heart was ambassidor to Ghana and then Czechoslovakia. Then became Chief of Protocal for the US.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Somebody should have told Donald Trump that the whole “attempting to overthrow a legitimately elected US government” thing can get them talked about often, and then stick with a fellow for quite a long time.
Also – quick poll:
Which is said the most but actually means the least (ie, has the highest inverse correlation between frequency and substance)?
- Trump Derangement Syndrome
- FAKE NEWS!
- MAGA!
- Other (please specify below)
0
voters
I recall a meme during Trump’s first term that said, “this whole thing could have been avoided if someone had told him that Obama could hold his breath for 20 minutes.”
Shirley Temple Black spent two decades after her last fim, and ten years after appearing on TV, working in Republican party politics in California, at at time when that involved real work and organization rather than simply being a celebrity or “owning the libs.” She picked up enough knowledge of US foreign policy during that time to impress Henry Kissinger with her thoughts on South West Africa (now Namibia). She did some grunt work on the American delegation to the UN before getting appointed ambassador to Ghana. (Also, she was Chief of Protocol between her ambassadorships).
I suspect that the class of person that Donald Trump is mining from his family and reality TV connections can’t quite measure up to Mrs. Temple Black, but who knows? Perhaps Herschel Walker’s sprint speed will come in handy while helping the Republic of Nassau split off from the rest of the Bahamas, now renamed Freeportia.
Is it normal, or required for diplomats to be able to speak the native language? I understand that an american diplomat in UK would have a rudimentary understanding of the English language, but im thinking of the diplomats to Swaziland, Norway, China, such countries?
Do you mean Biden?
The current U.S. ambassador to France is Denise Campbell Bauer. Biden chose her for the position, for which she was sworn in on December 23, 2021. Trump will not be able to put Kushner in the position until he takes office this January 20. The Senate will have to approve Kushner, which they’ll probably do in a vote split on party lines (i.e. Republicans will vote in favor of Kushner, and Democrats against him). There are 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and 2 independents in the Senate now, so there’s not much that the Democratic Party can do about it.
Many Americans are upset and embarrassed by Trump, his rantings, his policies, and his proposed appointments. Kushner isn’t even the worst.
I don’t think it is required, as an interpreter will always be supplied, but it is always nice if a diplomat of any country makes an attempt to at least get some words and phrases in the local language down. Even hello/goodbye/please/thanks/“my name is”/“I am pleased to meet you” in the local language works to smooth things over before the conversation is turned over to the interpreter.
An old friend is a Canadian diplomat in Taiwan. She does not speak Chinese, except for the words and phrases I mentioned above. But she is learning. And that gets her extra bonus points from the Taiwanese. They’re willing to forgive minor gaffes as long as she can say, “Sorry, my mistake” in Chinese.
“My nipples explode with delight.”
I have the distinct feeling that your hovercraft has seen better days, too.
Nah, just need to clean the eels out of it & it’ll be good as new.
What’s normal is the ambassadorships to safe allied countries are patronage appointments given to friends of the president and big donors. Sometimes they have ties to the country but often not. Being the ambassador to Belgium is generally not too difficult and there are professionals there that will do the real work anyway. The ambassador to various hotspots are supposed to be career diplomats like Ryan Crocker who do the work regardless of the the party in charge in Washington: I met Ambassador Crocker and he’s a very impressive man. With this administration all bets are off.
It’s something he can tell people he is while still having time to run his TV shows. If he was named Ambassador he would have to give up running his TV empire. When Woody Johnson was named ambassador to the UK by Trump the last time he handed over control of the New York Jets to his brother.