President-elect Donald J. Trump appears to believe he owes little to the Republican establishment donor set, a majority of whom opposed him. He also ran a campaign that challenged longstanding shibboleths of American diplomacy.

Mr. Trump’s choice of ambassadors could be a sign of how serious he is about both those stances. But as his transition team begins sifting through possible choices for a dozen major embassies, the signals are unclear.

Two of his three choices so far, Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa for China, and David M. Friedman for Israel, are loyalists, not big donors. The third, Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, picked as ambassador to the United Nations, was an ardent critic of Mr. Trump. Mr. Branstad has described President Xi Jinping of China as an “old friend;” Ms. Haley and Mr. Friedman have no diplomatic experience.

But the nomination of Mr. Friedman, a conservative who has been deeply critical of the pro-Israel lobbying group J Street, and who has vowed to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, has roiled large sections of the foreign policy establishment — just the kind of disruption Mr. Trump liked to emphasize in his campaign.