Report: U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns Over Trump’s EU Attacks

The U.S. ambassador to Estonia has abruptly announced his resignation and cited President Trump’s public criticisms of the EU and NATO as a major factor in his decision, Foreign Policy reports. James Melville, a 33-year diplomat and ambassador to Estonia since 2015, is said to have been planning to retire in the near future but told his friends Trump’s remarks had pushed him to leave the post early. “For the President to say the EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go,” Melville wrote in a private Facebook post, according to the report. A State Department spokesperson has confirmed Melville’s resignation, telling Politico his last day would be July 29. “I leave willingly and with deep gratitude for being able to serve my nation with integrity for many years, and with great confidence that America, which is and has always been, great, will someday return to being right,” he wrote.