The State Department, the foreign ministry of the United States, is going through its largest staffing overhaul in decades. Since Donald Trump's second term began on January 20, 2025, about 3,000 of the department's 14,000 career diplomats have resigned, retired or been pushed out over 18 months, according to estimates by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), which represents these professionals. Analysts describe the administration's foreign policy as "transactional": tariff wars and attempts to influence elections and domestic affairs of other countries in pursuit of immediate gains for the United States.
The effect shows up at the embassies. Of the 113 nominees Trump had put forward by August 10, only 20 were career diplomats, under 18 percent, the lowest share in the country's recent history. Since Gerald Ford (1974-1977), including Trump's first term, the share had hovered at 60 percent or more. Political appointments have long been a Washington tradition. According to AFSA data, however, 97 of the 196 ambassador posts still have no Senate-confirmed occupant, some because confirmations are pending, others because no one has been nominated; at the same point in Joe Biden's term, there were 55. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott speaks of a "historic restructuring" and of diplomacy "aligned with America First" that is "more efficient, agile and assertive". The AFSA counters that the service is being politicized, and that pushing aside officers who served Democratic and Republican administrations alike "ends up hurting the country" in the long term.
Brazil has become one of the most visible cases of this dispute. The US Embassy in Brasília has had no confirmed ambassador since January 2025, when Elizabeth Bagley, appointed by Biden, left. Only in June did the White House pick Daniel Perez, 38, a Republican lawyer and son of Cuban immigrants who has led the Florida House of Representatives, the state's lower legislative chamber, since 2024, after first winning a seat in 2017. A Trump ally who embraces the MAGA (Make America Great Again) slogan, he praised in January the US military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. The US Senate confirmed him in early August, but Perez still awaits the agrément, the formal assent the receiving government grants before an ambassador takes up the post. The process is stuck because, in Brasília's assessment, Washington skipped steps: it announced the name and sent it to the Senate before formally requesting Brazil's consent, which by diplomatic custom comes first.
The August escalation
The crisis broke into the open on August 4, when the State Department changed the visa of Brazil's ambassador in Washington, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, attributing the move to Brazilian delays in granting the agrément. The Planalto, Brazil's presidential palace, rejected the decision and said the justifications "are false". The presidential note also recalls that, under Article 4 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the agrément process is confidential and the nominee's name should only become public once consent is granted.
"Today's decision is not an isolated event. It is part of a deliberate escalation of hostile measures against Brazil, motivated by ideological reasons incompatible with a bilateral partnership that has always been guided by mutual respect."
On protocol, the text is blunt: "There is no rule in the Vienna Convention setting a deadline for the granting of the agrément. The American request is still under analysis." The note also denounces an improper interest in interfering in next year's presidential election. Context adds to the friction: the move against Viotti came ten days after Brazil's foreign ministry, the Itamaraty, denied visas to two State Department officials, Riley Barnes and Samuel Samson, who according to a Washington Post report cited by CNN Brasil planned to question the reliability of Brazil's electronic voting machines. The note also recalls that US sanctions remain in force against Brazilian officials, including justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, over what Brasília rejects as baseless claims of political persecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and that Lula personally asked Trump to lift those measures during a visit to Washington in May. Brazilian diplomats interviewed by CNN described the action against the ambassador as "blackmail" meant to speed up approval of Perez.
What each side wants
The interests are easy to read. Washington wants a political ally seated in Brasília as soon as possible and treats the protocol shortcut as "America First" efficiency, with missions lacking ambassadors run by "experienced chargés d'affaires", in Pigott's words. Brasília wants custom respected, from the agrément to non-interference in the 2026 election, and keeps the request under analysis. Viotti called the moment an "unusual phase" in bilateral relations, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The long-term warning comes from inside the United States itself: the AFSA argues that the large-scale departure of diplomats with decades of experience will cost the country over time, while the State Department insists it is assembling an "elite diplomatic team".