Trump’s other “quid pro quo” is Washington’s biggest open secret

TL;DR: The "other quid pro quo" is giving out ambassadorships to campaign contributors.

I tend to agree that this is an obnoxious practice that should be ended. However, in Trump's defense (ugh, there's a phrase I hate writing), it should be noted that this has been a practice of presidents from both parties for approximately forever. The article indicates that he does it slightly more often than his predecessors, but the moral difference between "sold 45% of ambassadorships" and "sold 30% of ambassadorships" is not large.

It's also worth noting that the ambassadorships given out to these clowns are nearly always completely insignificant ones, typically ones to small countries with pleasant climates. American foreign policy is not going to succeed or fail based on who is the Ambassador to the Bahamas. And in other cases where the diplomatic relationship is actually significant, like the ambassadorships to Israel and the UK, the heads of state of both nations are typically in such regular direct contact as to render the ambassador more or less ornamental.

Really the take-away here is that it's not clear what the actual function of an ambassador in the modern age is. When it could take weeks or months for a letter sent from one capital to reach another, having "our man in [insert capital here]" be someone who could reliably think on his feet was crucial. Today, when world leaders can reach each other directly in seconds via phone or text or tweet, who happens to sit in an ambassador's chair matters much less.