Diplomats posted at embassies abroad are being called back from their assignments "after providing less-than-positive analysis or unwelcome recommendations to leadership," according to the Aug. 28 email, which has not been previously reported.
"Even if offered discreetly, any statement, verbal or written, can be politicized and used against you," read the message from the American Foreign Service Association. "That is the reality we face."
"What we’re seeing in the diplomatic corps right now is fear," John Dinkelman, a retired career diplomat who is now president of the American Foreign Service Association, told NBC News.
Trump and his team have pushed for political allegiance in an unprecedented way, demanding career civil servants jettison impartiality for a more partisan stance backing the administration’s agenda, according to current and former officials and experts.
“I am getting reports from literally all over the world of individuals who are reticent to offer up their well trained and well experienced opinions regarding the situation on the ground, the way in which foreign interlocutors will view our positions, and even to propose — heaven forbid — an alternate course of action,” Dinkelman said.
He declined to say how many diplomats have been reassigned for offering candid assessments, to avoid exposing his colleagues to potential further retaliation.
On Aug. 1, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was fired after her office delivered a report on employment statistics that indicated a weakening jobs market. Trump claimed without evidence the numbers were “faked.”
And late last month, the three-star general leading the Defense Intelligence Agency was abruptly dismissed after his agency produced an initial intelligence assessment that found U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites had a limited effect, seeming to contradict Trump’s claim at the time that the facilities had been “obliterated.”
“The demand for loyalty that we seem to be seeing is deeper and broader than almost at any other time in the history of the country,” said Austin Sarat, a political science professor at Amherst University.
