Sworn in as the United States Ambassador to Singapore on Sept 4, 2013, Kirk Wagar has gone through some of the most turbulent times in our history. The former Miami lawyer had sat through Lee Kuan Yew’s passing, saw the exchange of power in the 2015 General Election, witnessed the effects of the 1MDB scandal and Brexit on Singapore, and even set aside some time to eat bak kut teh with food blogger ieatishootipost.
Oh, and of course, Wagar saw the rise of Donald Trump into the US political arena, and could only watch from afar how the controversial firebrand got voted in as the 45th President of the United States.
With just hours before Donald Trump is sworn in as president, Wagar and his family took their leave from the US Embassy in Singapore as they head back for home after spending more than three years in the Little Red Dot. A bitter farewell for sure, amidst the final days of the Obama administration.
The Wagars even left a short message to Singaporeans, thanking them for “opening (their) hearts and homes” and how Singapore “changed their lives forever”.
.@AmbWagar, @MrsWagar: Thank you for opening your hearts and homes to us. https://t.co/MmfBykEH7y pic.twitter.com/MeKfckyM5R
— US Embassy Singapore (@RedWhiteBlueDot) January 20, 2017
Welp, time to brace ourselves for mad changes coming. As for Wagar’s replacement, he or she will be having the uphill job of trying to cultivate ties with a country that Trump has accused of stealing American jobs. Not to mention a country that’ll soon have a Malay-Muslim president, ie, someone who’ll no doubt disagree with Trump’s prevailing rhetoric that Muslims are a threat to the United States.
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