A large number of senior career diplomats who served in politically appointed leadership positions at the State Department have left their posts at the demand of the incoming Trump administration, which plans to install its own people in those positions, according to current and outgoing U.S. officials. Personnel changes in the senior ranks of the department, like those at all federal agencies, are not uncommon after a presidential election, and career officials serving in those roles are required, just as non-career political appointees, to submit letters of resignation before an incoming administration takes office. In the past, some of those resignations have not been accepted, allowing career officials to remain in their posts at least temporarily until the new president can nominate his team. That offers some degree of continuity in the day-to-day running of the bureaucracy. One senior career diplomat who will be staying, Lisa Kenna, a former ambassador to Peru who served in senior positions under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, was appointed acting secretary of state shortly after Monday’s inauguration, officials said. Kenna will only be in that job for a matter of hours, until Trump’s nominee for top diplomat, Marco Rubio, is confirmed by the Senate, which is expected later Monday. Kenna will then return to a job she held under former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as executive secretary. While turnover is inevitable and expected during any change of administration, the departures come at an increasingly fraught time, notably in Ukraine and the Middle East, in the foreign policy realm. Conflict is raging between Russia and Ukraine, and new negotiations will be required early next month to extend and expand a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Thus, changes in the top ranks of the State Department and the White House National Security Council may have a more significant impact than they might have had during previous transitions. At the NSC, President Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, will on Monday begin an evaluation of non-political career detailees, according to a person familiar with planning. The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said guidance was expected to be soon issued to the impacted NSC staff. Earlier this month incoming Trump administration officials had questioned some career civil servants about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by Trump’s team, a second U.S. official familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. That official also spoke on the condition of the anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter. The NSC is an arm of the White House tasked with advising and assisting the president on national security and foreign policy and coordinating among various government agencies. It is common for experts detailed to the NSC to carry over from one administration to the next, even when the White House changes parties. The NSC staff members who have been questioned about their loyalty are largely subject matter experts who have been loaned to the White House by federal agencies — the State Department, FBI and CIA, for example — for temporary duty that typically lasts one to two years. The plans for evaluation appeared to […]