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You are fired! (You’re fired!): This is one of the first iconic sentences about Donald Trump as the main character on a television show for many Americans. comes to your mind. The president is not afraid to go as an ambassador if that is in his best interest. That was the case last year, for example Marie Yovanovitch, Chief of the US Mission in Kiev, who was on his way to using Trump’s Ukraine policy against his predictable electoral opponent, Joe Biden.
It also happens that Trump plays chess with one of his trusted ambassadors as if it were just a piece on a board. An example of this was Richard Grenell, an ambassador to Berlin who was also appointed by the White House for a time as the top US intelligence chief.
But David Cornstein, the US ambassador in Budapest who resigned on Tuesday, has a different mass.
In terms of his status – age, connection, wealth – he was far beyond the usual diplomatic hierarchy, which, as far as we know, also taught those who wanted to control him in Washington.
The arrival of Donald Trump, a good personal friend of the 80-year-old New York jeweler with no previous diplomatic experience, already in 2018 did not think about the diplomatic life of Budapest that would remain in the Hungarian capital beyond the president’s mandate until January 2021. and that he will be the master of daily life in the foreign mission of Szabadság tér.
This politician appointed a strong career diplomat as his first subordinate to manage one of the most important embassies in Budapest with hundreds of people. Do this task from now on Bagasse Dillard will serve as trustee, at least until next spring, and previously it was David Kostelancik’s first subordinate term.
While Cornstein also played a role in organizing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to the White House last May, considering his influence on Trump, a quarter-century of Hungarian-American relations lament the burden that only paratroopers without diplomatic experience obtain the post of head of mission in Budapest. With Charles Thomas, the last US career diplomat, here to lead a mission The plane took off in January 1994.
Charles Gati, a Hungarian-American political scientist and a former figure in bilateral relations, criticized this practice in a study recommended for Washington’s foreign affairs; According to him, the devaluation of the Central European region means that the incompetent are sent to Budapest as heads of mission. Also, for more than three years, none of them stayed with us.
According to American practice, ambassadors are the president’s personal envoys.
Relatives, lovers, campaign donors.
Among the appointed politicians in Budapest were like
- New York star attorney Peter Tufo (nominated by Democrat Bill Clinton), former lover of former President John F. Kennedy’s sister-in-law, whose women’s affairs were no secret in the social life of millennial Budapest.
- George Herbert Walker, azaz “Uncle Bert”, George W. Bush Republican President-in-Office, cousin of the late Senior President George Bush (who has since passed away)
- April Foley, named by Republican President George W. Bush and ex-girlfriend of college
- Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis is a supporter of the Democratic campaign, a descendant of the Greek-American real estate family in California, appointed by President Barack Obama, current Governor of California.
- Colleen Bell, Hollywood producer, Democratic campaign supporter, appointed by President Barack Obama, Cornstein’s predecessor
Featured Image: David B. Cornstein, Ambassador of the United States of America in Budapest, will address a reception in honor of the 243rd anniversary of Independence Day at the Budapest Congress Center on July 9, 2019. MTI / Koszticsák Solid
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