The U.S. ambassador to Estonia has resigned over frustrations with President Donald Trump's comments about the European Union and his treatment of Washington's European allies.

In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville wrote: "For the President to say 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."

Melville was referring to Trump's recent comments at news conferences and on social media.

Melville stressed that a U.S. 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 honorable course is to resign."

Melville is a senior U.S. career diplomat who has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015. He has served at U.S. Embassies in Berlin, London and Moscow, among other postings.

"Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me," he wrote, referring to a career with the State Department that started in the mid-1980s.

The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that Melville "announced his intent to retire from the Foreign Service effective July 29 after 33 years of public service." It did not elaborate.

Foreign Policy magazine said Melville is one of the many senior U.S. diplomats who have resigned because of Trump's policies. </s> The U.S. ambassador to Estonia says he has resigned over frustrations with President Donald Trump's comments about the European Union and the treatment of Washington's European allies.

In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville wrote: "For the President to say 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."

Melville is a senior U.S. career diplomat who has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015. He has served the State Department for 33 years.

The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn did not immediately comment. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption James D Melville is a career diplomat who has held senior posts in several European countries

The US ambassador to Estonia is resigning, reportedly in frustration at remarks made by President Donald Trump about America's European allies.

James D Melville said Mr Trump's comments on Nato and the EU had brought forward his decision to retire, Foreign Policy magazine reports.

The magazine was quoting from a private Facebook post by the envoy.

Mr Trump accuses Europeans of unfairly expecting America to shoulder the costs of the Nato alliance.

He has also imposed trade tariffs on some EU industries.

Other US diplomats left their posts early in recent months:

In January, US ambassador to Panama John Feeley resigned saying he was no longer able to serve under President Trump.

A month earlier, Elizabeth Shackelford resigned from her post in Nairobi where she had worked for the US mission to Somalia, saying she was quitting because the US had abandoned human rights as a priority, Foreign Policy reports

In the private Facebook post seen by Foreign Policy, Mr Melville reportedly told friends: "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 [the North American Free Trade Agreement]' is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it's time to go."

Mr Melville is a career diplomat and took up his position as ambassador in Estonia in 2015 after being nominated by then President Barack Obama.

He had previously held senior diplomatic posts in several European countries and speaks Russian, German and French, according to his biography on the US state department website.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Nato has stepped up exercises in the Baltic states in recent years

A state department spokesperson confirmed Mr Melville's intention to resign on 29 July.

President Trump reiterated his criticism of fellow Nato members on Friday while on a flight from Washington to his private golf club in New Jersey.

He told reporters on board Air Force One that countries including Germany, Spain and France had to increase their financial contributions to the bloc.

"It's not fair what they've done to the United States," he said. "The United States is paying much more disproportionately to anyone else."

His remarks come less than two weeks before a Nato summit in Brussels. </s> James Melville, the U.S. ambassador to Estonia, announced in a private Facebook post that he was resigning after Trump's comment about Europe, NATO.

In a private Facebook post obtained by Foreign Policy, the U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James Melville, announced his resignation. A career diplomat whose career began 33 years ago, Melville has served as ambassador to Estonia since 2015.

Although he was due to retire soon, Melville decided to end his career early, following President Donald Trump’s comments about Europe and NATO.

Explaining his early resignation, the ambassador wrote the following.

“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 honorable 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.”

Melville then went on to criticize the president, slamming his relationship with European allies and NATO.

In a final jab at Trump, the U.S. ambassador to Estonia referenced the president’s famous slogan, “Make America Great Again,” writing the following.

Several State Department officials talked to Foreign Policy under the condition of anonymity, describing James Melville as a professional, typically unfazed by domestic politics.

“I just wonder who’s next,” state department officials told the magazine, after stressing how surprising Melville’s decision was, considering the now former U.S. ambassador to Estonia “had it all” in his diplomatic career.

As Foreign Policy notes, Melville is not the first U.S. diplomat to resign because of Trump. Many of them have done so, some quietly, and some not. For instance, the U.S. ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, resigned and then published a column in the Washington Post, titled “Why I could no longer serve this president.”

In the op-ed, Feeley cited Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis as the main reason for his resignation, adding that Trump’s travel ban, border wall, DREAMers policy, as well as the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership had, along with tariffs, accelerated his decision.

Similarly, Elizabeth Shackelford, “a rising star in the diplomatic corps in Africa,” as Foreign Policy put it, quit due to Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s “disdain” of American diplomacy.

Many have criticized the way the president has treated Europe, NATO, Canada, and ally countries. For instance, Centre for Policy Studies’ Capx called Donald Trump’s treatment of allies a “geopolitical disaster,” claiming that Trump is signaling that he is impressed by autocrats and exercise of arbitrary power, yet hostile toward democracies.

Tensions between the Trump administration, therefore the United States, and the European Union have been escalating for quite some time. As the Inquisitr recently reported, the European Commission authored a special report on Donald Trump’s 20 percent tariff on all U.S. imports of European Union-assembled cars, warning that the tariffs could jeopardize the U.S., apart from negatively impacting European economies. </s> The U.S. ambassador to Estonia has announced his resignation, saying he is taking the “honorable course” in the wake of President Donald Trump’s “inaccurate” slams against the European Union, Foreign Policy reported Friday.

“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,” James D. Melville Jr. wrote in a private Facebook post obtained by Foreign Policy.

Pres. Trump: "We love the countries of the European Union. But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States." https://t.co/WY5hUuaonz pic.twitter.com/KI2nyWTymU — ABC News (@ABC) June 28, 2018

Melville has worked as a diplomat for 33 years and been in Estonia since 2015. He has served under six presidents. Melville said he was already planning to retire, but will cut short his service and step down at the end of July over Trump’s comments.

He said in his post that a foreign service officer is “programmed to support policy,” and that if there “comes a point when one can no longer do so ... the honorable course is to resign.”

Melville said he leaves with “deep gratitude for being able to serve my nation with integrity for many years, and with great confidence that America, which is and has always been, great, will someday return to being right.”

“We love the countries of the European Union,” Trump said. “But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank.”

Melville’s announcement comes less than two weeks before a critical NATO summit in Brussels and Trump’s planned meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fears are mounting that the president will repeat his performance at the Group of Seven summit and exacerbate tensions with long-time American allies.

The White House has not yet commented on Melville’s resignation or his Facebook message. </s> U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants

The U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., a career diplomat and member of the senior foreign service ranks, announced to friends Friday that he was resigning amid a string of controversial comments President Donald Trump made about U.S. allies in Europe.

Melville, who has served as a diplomat for 33 years and as ambassador to Estonia since 2015, was due to retire soon but said in a private Facebook post announcing his retirement that Trump’s behavior and comments accelerated his decision.

“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 honorable 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,” he wrote in the post, which was obtained by Foreign Policy.

“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,” he wrote, citing Trump’s reported comments in recent weeks that have unnerved U.S. allies.

The post surprised several State Department officials who worked with Melville, describing him as a consummate professional who never let domestic politics impact his job.

The resignation comes ahead of a pivotal NATO summit, where the United States’ closest historic allies fear that Trump will lambast them and further isolate Washington from its allies after heated disputes over trade, defense spending issues, and the U.S. exit from the Iran nuclear deal. Allies fear that the optics of Trump trashing allies in Brussels, followed by a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin, will undercut an already anemic trans-Atlantic partnership.

[NATO is bracing for impact with Trump’s upcoming visit to Brussels — and Trump isn’t backing down from the fight over European defense spending.]

Melville said he believed in the U.S. support for the European Union and NATO to his “marrow.”

“I leave willingly and with deep gratitude for being able to serve my nation with integrity for many years, and with great confidence that America, which is and has always been, great, will someday return to being right,” he added. He said his last day on the job would be July 29, even though the Trump administration has yet to name a replacement. (Trump last month quietly withdrew the name of Edward Masso to be ambassador, though did not explain why.)

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Melville is one of many senior U.S. diplomats who have resigned — some quietly, some not — because of Trump’s policies. In December 2017, for example, the U.S. ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, resigned and several months later wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post slamming the president and his foreign-policy stances. Elizabeth Shackelford, a rising star in the diplomatic corps in Africa, quit with a scathing resignation letter, also obtained by FP, deriding Trump and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for what she saw as their disdain of U.S. diplomacy.

[One diplomat’s stinging resignation letter offers a glimpse into declining morale at the State Department under Trump.]

“It means a lot when someone whose had it all in their career just says, ‘I can’t do this any longer,’” one senior State Department official said of Melville’s retirement. “I just wonder who’s next.” </s> The US ambassador to Panama has resigned, saying that he no longer felt able to serve President Donald Trump.

John Feeley, 56, a career diplomat and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, announced his resignation in a letter to the state department.

"As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies," he wrote, in a letter obtained by Reuters.

"My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come."

Mr Feeley becomes the first ambassador to resign over concerns about Mr Trump's leadership.

His resignation was made public hours after Mr Trump's comments on "s-------" nations were made public, but a senior state department official told The Telegraph that Mr Feeley's decision was made before the remarks.

“Ambassador Feeley informed leadership of his decision on December 27, 2017," the state department said.

The spokesman added that the deputy chief of mission, Roxanne Cabral, will assume leadership of the diplomatic mission until a new ambassador arrives.

The state department said that he "has informed the White House, the Department of State, and the Government of Panama of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year." </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly said he was quitting on Thursday after falling out with President Donald Trump over his foreign policies, including surprise decisions to yank troops from Syria and start planning a drawdown in Afghanistan.

Mattis announced plans to depart in a candid resignation letter to Trump that laid bare the growing divide between them, and implicitly criticized Trump for failing to value America’s closest allies, who fought alongside the United States in both conflicts.

He released the letter after a face-to-face meeting with Trump in which the two men also aired their differences, a senior White House official said.

“Because you have a right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis said in the letter.

U.S. officials said the resignation had not been forced by Trump.

Trump announced on Wednesday that U.S. troops in Syria would be withdrawn, a decision that upended American policy in the region. On Thursday, an official said the president was planning to withdraw at least 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan - another blow to Mattis, who advocated for a strong U.S. military presence to bolster diplomatic peace efforts.

Mattis, a retired Marine general whose embrace of NATO and America’s traditional alliances often put him at odds with Trump had advised against the Syria withdrawal. One official said it was a contributing factor to his resignation.

The news is certain to shock U.S. military allies, already bewildered by what they see as Trump’s unpredictable, go-it-alone approach to global security, and raises questions about whether Mattis’ successor will be as steadfast about traditional treaty commitments, including to NATO.

When Mattis interviewed with Trump for the job in 2016, he split with the president-elect on a host of issues, including on NATO and the use of torture. Trump ultimately deferred to Mattis, who opposed the latter, signaling that he could be persuaded by his advisers.

But as time grew, Trump increasingly acted on his own instincts on a host of national security issues, choosing an “America First” agenda that contradicted Mattis’ core beliefs.

Mattis’ letter indicated that he disagreed with Trump’s isolationist policies, writing that it was his belief the United States needed to maintain strong alliances and show allies respect.

Trump has withdrawn the United States from several international agreements since taking office in January 2017.

The Mattis resignation letter also said that he believed the United States “must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours.” He identified Russia and China as countries that “want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model.”

Mattis’ resignation was greeted with regret on Capitol Hill, by both Republicans and Democrats.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated he was in agreement with Mattis on America’s alliances and on Russia, whom he described as a foe.

“But I am particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on these and other key aspects of America’s global leadership,” McConnell said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the news media while gathering for a briefing from his senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called it “a significant loss and a real indication that President Trump’s foreign policy agenda has failed and continues to spiral into chaos.”

WHITE HOUSE UNPREDICTABILITY

The shifts in significant aspects of U.S. foreign policy and Mattis’ addition to the long list of senior Trump administration figures who have quit or been removed added to the sense of an increasingly unpredictable White House as Trump approaches the halfway point of his four-year term.

And if defense policy disagreements were not enough distraction for a president who is under investigation by a special counsel over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, financial markets took a beating this week and a U.S. government shutdown loomed because of funding disputes over Trump’s desire to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

This year has been the worst for world stock markets since the 2008 global financial crisis, with MSCI’s 47-country world stocks index down 10 percent.

Trump, announcing Mattis’ departure on Twitter, said he would nominate a successor soon.

“General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” he said.

One possible candidate to replace Mattis as defense chief could be Republican Senator Tom Cotton, long considered a front-runner to eventually take the role.

Trump’s White House has had the highest turnover of senior-level staff of the past five presidents, according to the Brookings Institution think tank.

Slideshow (6 Images)

Some departed unceremoniously, such as Trump’s first Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired via Twitter in March.

Speculation that Mattis might not last long in his post grew in October when Republican Trump said in a CBS interview that the general was “sort of a Democrat” and might be leaving. Mattis responded at the time by telling reporters that he had Trump’s full support.

Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser, said Trump was entitled to a Pentagon chief with whom he could agree.

“This is an opportunity for the whole country to get a new secretary of defense who will be aligned with the president on these critical issues, whether you’re talking about in Syria, whether you’re talking about across the Middle East in general,” Miller told CNN. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Rank, the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, has left the State Department over the Trump administration’s decision to quit the 2015 Paris agreement to fight climate change, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

An official of China's Giant Panda Protection and Research Center introduces Dujiangyan Panda Base to David Rank (C), the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, in Sichuan province, China March 24, 2017. Picture taken March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Rank’s departure, but said she was unable to verify Twitter posts that said he resigned as he felt unable to deliver a formal notification to China of the U.S. decision last week to quit the agreement.

“He has retired from the foreign service,” said Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the department’s East Asia Bureau. “Mr. Rank has made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department.”

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump’s pick as the next U.S. ambassador to Beijing, is expected to take up the post later this month.

A tweet from China expert John Pomfret quoted unnamed sources as saying that Rank had resigned as he could not support Trump’s decision last week to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

Another tweet from Pomfret said Rank called a town hall meeting to announce his decision to embassy staff and explained that he could not deliver a diplomatic note informing the Chinese government of the U.S. decision.

A senior U.S. official confirmed the account given in the tweets but added that after Rank announced his intention to retire on Monday in Beijing, he was told by the State Department to leave his post immediately. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

On June 1, the U.S. State Department accepted the resignation of its top personnel officer, who had been among its few remaining senior Obama administration political appointees, another U.S. official said.

Arnold Chacon had served as the director general of the foreign service and director of human resources.

The official said Chacon had tendered his resignation when Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, along with all presidential appointees, who serve at the pleasure of the president and secretary of state.

The acceptance of Chacon’s resignation was first reported by the DiploPundit website.

It was not immediately clear whether he would be offered another post at the department.

Other than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his deputy John Sullivan and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon, the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, most of the State Department’s senior posts are currently vacant or filled by acting officials.

Chacon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Contacted by Reuters for comment, Rank, a career foreign service officer who took over the post of deputy chief of mission in Beijing in January 2016, referred all questions to the U.S. embassy.

Jonathan Fritz, the embassy’s economics councilor, would serve as chargé in his place, Richey-Allen said.

FILE PHOTO: A paramilitary police officer guards the entrance to the U.S. embassy in Beijing April 30, 2012. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo

Rank had been with the department for 27 years and served as the political councilor at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.

Trump’s announcement on Thursday that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, saying it would undermine the U.S. economy and cost jobs, drew anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry.

“The world has paid attention to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris agreement”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing on Tuesday, but added that personnel changes were the United States’ “internal affairs”.
The U.S. Ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., announces his resignation from that post because of U.S. President Donald Trump's comments about NATO and the European Union. He was appointed to the post in December 2015.