"When we sent your invitations to this event, we did not yet know who would be elected the next President of the United States. Tonight, you were invited to a celebration of democracy – not a celebration of a particular candidate’s victory," David Pressman, the US ambassador to Budapest started his post-election speech.
Voters had a clear choice between competing candidates with extraordinarily different visions for America, and America’s role in the world. We have seen a vigorous public debate of both,
the ambassador added, stressing
how proud he is that as a senior national security official of the United States government, he doesn't do politics.
In his excitement, David Pressman must have forgotten that over the past years he has constantly tried to put pressure on Hungarian domestic political figures and himself acted as a kind of viceroy rather than an ambassador. The diplomat then went on to explain his non-engagement in politics, saying
I represent the United States of America, not a political party within it, and I don’t comment on partisan politics, ever. Because we believe that our foreign policy – our predictability as a partner and an ally – is best served by a nonpartisan approach to national security policymaking. We swear an oath not to a person, not to a government, but to a constitution. To something far greater than any individual, any leader, any party.
After which the US ambassador then immediately turned political and attacked Viktor Orban, who, in his opinion, saw the presidential election as a card game, staking Hungarian-American relations on the outcome. Pressman criticized the Hungarian prime minister for openly stating, for example, that Donald Trump's victory could bring peace to the world. The diplomat then brought out the old mantra and lashed out at Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto for the Hungarian government not doing business the way Pressman and company would like.
In the end, the Ambassador Pressman asserted that Donald Trump's presidency will bring no change in the world that would affect Hungarians.
Pressman needs to pack his bags
Pressman's frustration is understandable since, as Magyar Nemzet reported, he will soon have to return home. There exists a unique dichotomy in diplomatic representation of the United States: on the one hand, there are career diplomats, who are appointed on a professional competency basis, while ambassadors are typically appointed on a political basis, although there are also career ambassadors, as well," Laszlo Dornfeld, senior analyst at the Center for Fundamental Rights, told our paper.
In the case of political appointees, it has become customary for individual ambassadors to tender their resignations upon the inauguration of the new president, giving him the opportunity to put his own people in their place,
the expert said.
Ronald Neumann, the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, said earlier that "politically appointed ambassadors are recalled because they are representatives of the outgoing administration". In 2017, Donald Trump called for the immediate resignation of the Obama administration's ambassadors, even though it was not unheard of previously that extensions to their terms of office had been granted on the basis of certain individual criteria (such as the completion of a child's school term), Laszlo Dornfeld pointed out.
The scenario will likely be no different now, with perhaps even more rapid changes of personnel characterizing the early days of the Trump administration,
the analyst said.
This means that David Pressman, the US ambassador to Hungary, will most likely have to submit his resignation by the presidential inauguration day on January 20, 2025, on which date his mandate will expire, he added.
Cover photo: David Pressman, US Ambassador to Budapest (Photo: AFP)
