Real Estate Developers versus State Department Lawyers as Special Emissaries of a U.S. President for Foreign Policy Missions

In recent weeks I heard on a widely watched podcast how analysts spoke disparagingly of President Trump’s choice of two ‘real estate’ chaps to carry out on his behalf the delicate mission of brokering a peace between Ukraine and Russia. In the view of these critics, the envoys should have been professional diplomats from within the State Department, not amateur outsiders.