President Biden is moderating his ambassador’s expectations of his high-value donors, signaling that he will not distribute excellent positions for months and insinuating that he will name fewer of them than his predecessors.
The big picture: The president embraced the Democratic Party’s drive for diversity when choosing his cabinet. Now lawmakers are pressing him to extend it to his ambassador choices, which means that white male donors – the core of his fundraising base – will be in serious competition for fewer vacancies.
What we are hearing: Biden is likely to reward loyal politicians and former advisers with conversations about former senators like Claire McCaskill who headed for a golden position in Europe.
- In front of policymakers, Julianne Smith, a former Biden advisor, can be appointed ambassador to NATO.
- In the donor class, Denise Bauer, Obama’s ambassador to Belgium, was one of the top fundraisers. She could return to Europe, possibly Paris, among the most coveted positions.
- Doug Hickey, another major donor to Biden, is also interested in posting abroad.
- James Costos, a former HBO executive who served as Obama’s ambassador to Spain, expressed interest in the UK, but many others are interested, including David Cohen, executive at Comcast.
- Louis Frillman, a real estate investor, and Nathalie Rayes, president of the Latino Victory Project, told associates that they are interested in Madrid or another European post.
The big question: The post of ambassador to China recently went to former politicians, giving Beijing the prestige of a big brand name and the White House the comfort that its envoy will have a political antenna to detect any potential problems.
- If Biden appoints Disney’s chief executive, Robert Iger, who told Biden’s officials he is interested, that would break the mold.
Biden is scheduled, weather permitting, to visit the State Department on Monday, a symbolic demonstration as he seeks to reinvigorate diplomacy and underscore the United States’ commitment to allies and partners. He must also comment on his foreign policy initiatives.
- While the president will certainly appoint some donors to important positions, others are getting nervous that they will be passed over and feverishly pressuring their cases.
- While more than 800 individuals and couples raised more than $ 100,000 for Biden’s presidential candidacy, the most elitist group of “packers” raised well above that amount and also gave the maximum of $ 620,000 to the Biden Victory Fund.
By the numbers: Biden is likely to make non-career nominations for about 30% of the nearly 190 total ambassadors, leaving 70% for the career Foreign Service, according to people familiar with the matter.
- That 70:30 ratio would be in line with the traditional division, according to the American Foreign Service Association.
- President Trump went astray in appointing political ambassadors for about 44% of his appointments.
- Trump’s nominees were also heavily undiversified, with more than 90% of their vacancies going to whites, Foreign Policy reported in 2018.
Go deeper: The political category has always been broadly divided into three groups: policy experts, politicians and donors.
- Biden is expected to extract more strongly from the first two categories, leaving fewer posts for donors looking to crown a successful business career with a post abroad.
- Biden has a vast network of Beltway friends and allies, but he has never been more successful – or depended – on money and celebrity classes in New York and California.