leader to paraphrase Angela Merkel
and say, ‘We can no longer count on
the Americans to provide leadership.’ ”
The U.S. diplomat in the region told
me that it would take a long, concerted
efort to restore the efectiveness of
American diplomacy. “We’re into mul-
tiple years of repair needed already—
say, five,” he said. “It’s bad.” As the coun-
try works to mend relationships with
allies, it will face severe shortages of ex-
perts in the working details of global
afairs, and of experienced mentors for
new recruits. At the State Department,
the diplomat added, “we don’t have arms.
We don’t have a huge budget. All we
have to compete with is the credibility
of our senior leadership. If you don’t
have those things, you’re dealing from
a position of weakness. And the way to
repair it is by putting people forward
who can tackle problems—people like
John.” He went on, “This is happening
at a very dangerous time for our coun-
try. Some people liken it to an own
goal. I’d say it’s more like a self-inflicted
Pearl Harbor.”
Jorge Guajardo, the former Mexican
Ambassador, told me that the loss of
prestige was already evident. “In Latin
America, the relationship with the U.S.
has gone from aspirational to transac-
tional,” he said. “In countries like Mex-
ico, we used to say, when there was a
case of corruption, ‘If this happened in
the U.S.A... .’ But we don’t say that any-
more. There used to be a kind of defer-
ence to the U.S. Not anymore. If some-
thing doesn’t benefit Mexico, we’ll walk
away.” In the past, he said, Latin-Amer-
ican countries looking for business part-
ners might select a U.S. company over
one from another country, because Amer-
ica represented higher ethical standards.
Since Trump’s election, he said, things
had changed. “There’s this idea that the
States is just like the rest of us. That’s
the saddest thing to me.”B
efore Feeley left Panama, he secured
a job as a commentator for Univi-
sion, the Miami-based Spanish-language
media conglomerate. (Univision also em-
ploys Jorge Ramos, a Mexican-American
journalist who had a public confronta-
tion with Trump during his Presidential
campaign.) He and Cherie got an apart-
ment in Miami, on the thirty-eighth
floor of a tower on Brickell Avenue.In late March, soon after Feeley re-
turned to the U.S., I went to see him.
He showed me around the apartment,
distractedly waving toward a new leather
couch and indicating the view of the city.
After exchanging a few logistical details
with Cherie—they were headed to the
Bahamas for the Easter break—Feeley
suggested that we go outside to talk.
The Miami River runs behind the
apartment building, and we sat on a
bench, looking at yachts gliding past.
Feeley had dressed for the South Flor-
ida weather—he wore a blue polo shirt,
jeans, and desert boots—but he was still
feeling in limbo. He hadn’t yet started
at Univision. “It’s pretty weird,” he said.
“I’ve always been part of a self-select-
ing structure, and I don’t have it here. I
played organized sports, went to a boys’
school, served in the Marines and then
the Foreign Service.” He seemed daunted
by the prospect of starting a new career.
“I had a pretty easy run to sixty-five
without really having to reinvent my-
self,” he said. Still, he was aware that
his former colleagues were in a much
more diicult situation. “Unless you’re
at the senior-most levels of the Depart-
ment of State, I would never think that
others should do as I did,” he said.
Among the people I spoke to who
had remained at State, several were cau-
tiously optimistic about Mike Pompeo,
who had replaced Tillerson. The U.S.
diplomat in Latin America said, “We’re
seeing Pompeo doing repair work al-
ready. The crystal-clear message we’re
getting is ‘We need you.’ We’re hearing
the same from C.I.A.” Feeley was less
hopeful, but he believed that Foreign
Service oicers were willing to work
with the Trump Administration. “I don’t
know of a single Trump supporter who
is an F.S.O.,” he said. “But I also don’t
know of a single F.S.O. who hopes for
failure, myself included. Far from the
Alex Jones caricature of a bunch of
pearl-clutching, cookie-pushing efetes,
we have an entire corps of people who
will do everything they can to success-
fully implement American foreign pol-
icy, as it is determined by the national
leaders—to include Mike Pompeo.” But,
Feeley suggested, Pompeo would need
to moderate his boss’s instincts. “I just
do not believe that, with Trump’s rhet-
oric and a lot of his policy actions, we
are going to recoup our leadership po-sition in the world,” he said. “Because
the evidence is already in, and we’re not.
We’re not just walking of the field. We’re
taking the ball and throwing a finger at
the rest of the world.”
When I asked Feeley whether he
thought Trump was a traitor, he looked
startled and turned away. Staring out
at the river, he replied, “I don’t know.
I couldn’t talk about that.”
“You’re a private citizen now.”
“Yeah, but I still wouldn’t—there
are still things. I wouldn’t comment on
it.” Feeley wouldn’t look at me.
“Are you worried that he is?” I asked.
“You mean, like, ‘Manchurian Can-
didate’ shit?”
Finally, Feeley ventured an answer.
Trump was “clearly a flawed man, much
more flawed than other Presidents I’ve
served,” he said. “The world is an unsta-
ble and complex enough place that we,
and the U.S. President, should not be the
cause of more chaos. But I would not
comment on traitor. Traitor’s a big thing.”
Feeley’s new job at Univision will
also involve diplomacy, of a sort: he plans
to travel the U.S. with a camera crew,
talking to Americans in the way that
he talked with Panamanians in videos
for social media. “As much as I dislike
what the President says, I also know a
lot of his supporters,” he said. “They’re
my Marine Corps friends—they’re my
brothers.” His goal was to facilitate hon-
est talk about immigration. “My own
desired end state is for a United States
that can control its own borders but also
welcome the trade that comes across,”
he said. “I want to go out into Middle
America and talk to people like my U.S.
Marine buddies, and ask them why they
want a wall. And I’ll let them speak
their piece. Then I’ll talk with a mi-
grant and ask him about his own expe-
riences. And I’ll get the two of them to
talk to each other.”
Laughing, he said, “I’m the reverse
crossover—the opposite of Gloria Es-
tefan. I started north and went south.”
Turning serious again, he said, “The bot-
tom line is, I know the lunch-pail guys
have legitimate grievances. I also know
that they and the migrants have more
in common than not. So, if I can bro-
ker a conversation, then that’s what I’ll
do. It may not melt hearts like ‘How the
Grinch Stole Christmas,’ but I’ll give it
my best shot.”