US Ambassador to Peru Resigns for Being Unable to ‘Faithfully’ Serve Trump

US President Donald Trump. (AP)
US President Donald Trump. (AP)
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US Ambassador to Peru Resigns for Being Unable to ‘Faithfully’ Serve Trump

US President Donald Trump. (AP)
US President Donald Trump. (AP)

The US ambassador to Peru announced that he was stepping down from his post because he could no longer “faithfully” serve President Donald Trump.

Ambassador to Panama John Feeley said: “As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies.”

“My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come,” he added according to an excerpt of a resignation letter read to Reuters on Friday.

Feeley’s departure had been communicated to State Department officials on December 27 and was not a response to Trump’s alleged use of an obscenity to describe Haiti and African countries at a meeting on Thursday, US officials said.

Trump denies using the term.

Feeley, one of the department’s Latin America specialists and among its senior most officers, made clear that he had come to a place where he no longer felt able to serve under Trump.

A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Feeley’s departure, saying that he “has informed the White House, the Department of State, and the Government of Panama of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year.”

Speaking to reporters, Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said he was aware of Feeley’s planned departure on Thursday morning, before Trump’s alleged use of the vulgar term, and said the ambassador was leaving for “personal reasons.”

“Everyone has a line that they will not cross,” Goldstein told reporters at the State Department. “If the ambassador feels that he can no longer serve ... then he has made the right decision for himself and we respect that.”

US officials declined to discuss Feeley’s reasons for leaving the department after a long career, much of which was spent working on Latin American issues.

Some of Trump’s policies have been widely regarded within the region as hostile to Latin America.

The Trump administration has taken a tougher stance on immigration from Latin America, most notably with moves to expel hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua who benefited from temporary protection status after natural disasters.

Feeley’s career included serving as the No. 2 official in the State Department bureau that deals with Latin America, as deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Mexico City and as director for Central American affairs in Washington. A career diplomat, he is a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot.

Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some with obscene language, during a briefing on draft immigration legislation, according to two sources familiar with the comments.

The United States should seek immigrants from Norway instead, he reportedly said, in comments that were widely interpreted as racist.

On Friday, the Republican president denied making the vulgar reference during the meeting.

But Democratic US Senator Dick Durbin, who had attended the White House meeting on immigration the previous day, told reporters that Trump had used "vile, vulgar" language.



US House Speaker Johnson Will Travel to Israel on June 22 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
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US House Speaker Johnson Will Travel to Israel on June 22 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)

US House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to Israel to address the parliament on June 22, he said on Wednesday.

"Our ties run deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements," Johnson said in an emailed statement.

Punchbowl News, which first reported Johnson's plan, said the House Speaker was expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem during the trip.

Johnson did not provide further details on the planned trip.

Johnson announced the visit as Israel presses on with its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, more than 20 months after it launched its offensive there in response to a deadly incursion into Israel led by the Palestinian group Hamas.

On Tuesday, Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Norway imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel called the action "outrageous" and said the Israeli government would hold a meeting early next week to decide how to respond.