US ambassador to Estonia resigns over frustration with Donald Trump
Jim Melville, 33-year career US diplomat, posts decision online
The US ambassador to Estonia has announced his resignation, citing Donald’s Trump’s disparagement of the European Union and Nato and adding to a steady trickle of career diplomats leaving in protest against the president’s policies.
Jim Melville, a 33-year diplomat who has been posted in Tallinn since 2015, was approaching retirement but announced his decision to leave early to friends in a private Facebook posting that was obtained by Foreign Policy.
The post refers to Trump’s remarks that have surfaced in the past week.
Melville wrote: “A Foreign Service Officer’s DNA is programmed to support policy and we’re schooled right from the start, that if there ever comes a point where one can no longer do so, particularly if one is in a position of leadership, the honourable course is to resign. Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me.
“For the President to say the EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank’, or that ‘ Nato is as bad as Nafta ’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”
