Does The President Have The Right to Appoint His Own Ambassadors?

An exclusive interview Friday on Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle” saw President Trump talk a bit about Giuliani’s business associate Lev Parnas and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

“I have a right to hire and fire ambassadors.”

Raymond Arroyo, who conducted the interview for Fox, asked the president whether or not he was relying on Parnas to “get rid of your Ambassador [Yovanovitch]." Arroyo also referred to an ABC report that claimed that Trump told a group, in which Parnas and associate Igor Fruman were in, that Yovanovitch should be gone “tomorrow.”

“No, no, but I have a lot of people and he’s somebody that I guess, based on pictures that I see, goes to fundraisers. But I am not a fan of that ambassador,” Trump told Arroyo.

“But were you telling Parnas to get rid of her? I mean, you have a State Department,” Arroyo asked the president, to perhaps get a more definitive answer on how Yovanovitch’s removal from the post of ambassador came to be.

“Well, I wouldn’t have been saying that. I probably would have said if it was Rudy there or somebody. But I make no bones about it. I won’t have ambassadors – I have every right. I want ambassadors that are chosen by me,” Trump responded.

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham chimed in with a response that extended support for the president - “Every President in our history has had the right to place people who support his agenda and his policies within his Administration.”

Yovanovitch’s formal dismissal occurred in May of 2019, while the report is about an April 2018 meeting that Trump had with Parnas, Fruman, and others. Fox was advised by sources who knew of the recording that Trump was not being “serious” and the report didn’t reflect the context of the conversation.

Many observers have cited the fact that President Trump failed to execute a complete and total overhaul of presidential appointees as a central reason for the issues he has faced during the current impeachment fiasco, which has included leaks, inaccessible whistle-blowers and what seems to be a relentless attack against the civil liberties of the President and many of his closet associates. The resistance to the president, that began long before his election and inauguration, has extended well into his first term and shows no signs of slowing down.