'Who’s in charge?' Foreign diplomats baffled by Trump's flood of 'special envoys'

A decision by Donald Trump to continue to hand out political rewards in the form of appointments to be a "special envoy" to U.S. allies has foreign diplomats wary of who they should listen to and who they should ignore.

According to reporting from NBC News, the president-elect is creating a "diplomatic mess" that could hamstring incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he is confirmed by the Senate.

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Noting that the president-elect "larger goal of stocking important government jobs with people he deems loyal to his agenda" is causing no shortage of criticism overseas with NBC reporting it has "the potential for duplication that may confuse foreign capitals about who’s really running thing."

Case in point, the report notes that Britain is faced with the prospect of "no fewer than three incoming officials" representing the president-elect which could lead to competing narratives of what Trump wants or believes.

One former Trump official expressed bafflement at what is going on.

Lewis Lukens, who served as acting U.S. ambassador to Britain under Trump, admitted, "I'm mystified by the notion that you would have an ambassador to the United Kingdom and a special envoy to the United Kingdom. I just don’t see how that has anything but a disastrous result."

He is not the only critic.

One foreign diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous lamented, “We’ve been in touch with several officers and envoys, and it’s a bit confusing. We’re not sure the envoy and the secretary himself know exactly their responsibilities. Who’s in charge on what issue?”

Foreign Relations Committee Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy (CT) is also raising a red flag by warning, "They’re building a diplomatic mess.”

“Historically, presidents have always used envoys,” he admitted before cautioning, “I don’t broadly have a problem with a president appointing envoys. I just think you should do it in a way that doesn’t create a real mess of overlapping responsibilities."

A former Trump White House official admitted the current state of affairs is nothing new.

"More than once, a country in confusion would say, 'I was just talking to Jared [Kushner], and he said something different,' or 'I was just talking to your U.N. ambassador [Nikki Haley], who is saying something different,'" they recalled.

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