U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feely resigned recently after President Donald Trump’s alleged comments about African countries, Reuters reports.
Feely is a career diplomat and U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot veteran who acknowledged in his resignation letter that he believed he could no longer serve apolitically in the Trump administration. The State Department confirmed the resignation to Reuters, saying it was for “personal reasons.” He is the first U.S. Ambassador to resign because of the president.
Reuters snaps on the resignation of the US ambassador to Panama ‘on principle,’ with an excerpt of his letter pic.twitter.com/bQZUQbxfhP
— Alan Yuhas (@AlanYuhas) January 12, 2018
Local reports in Panama noted his resignation was before Trump allegedly called some African nations a “shithole.”
Feely’s biography on the website for the U.S. Embassy in Panama notes that he joined the State Department in 1990 and assumed his post in January 2016.
“He is a career diplomat who has focused much of his work on Latin American and Caribbean issues, both in Washington and in the region,” his bio reads.