The Spoils System Returns, the Foreign Service Professional Association Is Crushed, and Why the Next President Will Be Handicapped

In the latest episode of the Sentinel, Peter Mina interviews Ambassador Eric Rubin, a 38‑year Foreign Service veteran, former president of American Foreign Service Association and current Steady State board member. Rubin describes how the Trump administration has dismantled the nonpartisan career foreign service, destroyed employee associations and affinity groups, and replaced them with a loyalty‑based “spoils system.”

He reveals that membership in the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, a Heritage Foundation project, has become the equivalent of membership in the Soviet Communist Party for State Department officers seeking promotions. Rubin also discusses the catastrophic war with Iran, noting that Ja ...