State Department begins mass layoffs
The U.S. State Department has begun mass layoffs, cutting over 1,300 jobs including diplomats and career civil servants. This effort, initiated by the Trump administration, aims to reduce what officials describe as a “bloated bureaucracy” by streamlining domestic operations and focussing on core diplomatic priorities. The layoffs include 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers assigned domestically, many of whom will be placed on administrative leave before dismissal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the reorganization, eliminating 132 offices and changing personnel rules to facilitate firings. While the administration views these cuts as necessary for efficiency and cost savings,critics warn that it diminishes the U.S.’s global influence and risks losing many talented employees. This reduction aligns with a broader governmental effort to cut federal workforce and reduce costs.
State Department begins mass layoffs
The State Department began to lay off more than 1,300 employees on Friday, including diplomats and career civil servants, according to multiple reports.
The Trump administration was widely anticipated to trim the department, even though there have been concerns that a reduction could affect the United States’s global influence.
An email with a layoff notice went out Friday to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the U.S., a senior State Department official told the Associated Press.
Foreign service officers, among those who have been notified, will be placed on 120-day administrative leave until they are dismissed, a notice obtained by the outlet said. Most civil servants will be dismissed after 60 days.
“In connection with the departmental reorganization … the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice said. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the agency’s transformation is necessary to cut through its “bloated bureaucracy.”
“There were 40 boxes on this piece of paper,” he told senators in May. “That means 40 people had to check off ‘yes’ before it even got to me. That’s ridiculous. And if any one of those boxes didn’t get checked, the memo didn’t move. That can’t continue.”
He is eliminating 132 offices within the department and rewriting personnel rules to allow them to fire foreign service and civil service officials.
The cuts aren’t a surprise. The Trump administration has cut jobs across the federal government in a cost-saving effort led by the Department of Government Efficiency. The administration said it wants to cut through a government it views as bloated and inefficient. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to move forward with the plan to reduce the federal workforce. The decision overturned a lower court’s pause on the executive order.
Elon Musk had helped lead that effort, though his large goals of up to $2 trillion in cuts appear to have come up well short. DOGE said it has saved $190 billion to date.
Cuts at the State Department could be some of the most damaging. Thomas Shannon, an undersecretary of state in the first Trump administration, told NPR that the department is doing more than just “trimming fat.”
STATE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATING RUBIO IMPERSONATOR
“This isn’t just about trimming fat,” Shannon said. “We’re removing a significant chunk of our civil service and foreign service employees, and restructuring in ways that reflect a diminished global agenda.”
“We’re going to end up cutting a lot of really talented individuals,” he added. “They’ll be like players in a game of musical chairs — suddenly finding themselves without a seat.”
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