Trump administration proposes shake-up of US State Department

The Trump administration is proposing an overhaul of the U.S. State Department that would eliminate more than 100 offices including some working on war crimes and rights advocacy to ensure Washington's premier diplomatic agency is in line with President Donald Trump's "America First" priorities.

The plan, which Congress has been notified about, would eliminate 132 of the department's 734 bureaus and offices, an internal State Department memo seen by Reuters said. Undersecretaries will submit plans to reduce staff by 15%, the document added.

It was not immediately clear how many people would be laid off as a result of the revamp, but a report in online publication the Free Press, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X, said an additional 700 positions would be eliminated in the shuttered offices.

Rationale and strategic shifts

"In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition," Rubio said in a statement.

"That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department into the 21st Century. This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies," Rubio said.

Both Rubio and officials said the bloated structure of the State Department made it impossible to quickly and efficiently make decisions, and that the new plan would attempt to empower regional bureaus to increase functionality and remove offices and programs not aligned with America’s core national interests.

Trump had issued a separate executive order in February directing Rubio to revamp the U.S. Foreign Service and how the State Department functions to ensure that the U.S. diplomatic corps faithfully implements his agenda.

Domestic focus and global implications

The proposed reorganization appears to be less dramatic than many in the department had feared, leaving in place bureaus that deal with democracy, human rights and refugees.

The plan announced on Tuesday is focusing on changes in the department's Washington headquarters, a senior State Department official told reporters when asked about the number of missions that may be shuttered overseas as part of the shake-up.

"This is a purely domestic plan. This does not have anything to do with any foreign missions. That's not to say that there won't be subsequent decisions on foreign missions," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

U.S. officials in March said the department was also preparing to shut down nearly one dozen consulates.

According to the new organizational chart that the State Department published, the office of Global Criminal Justice, which monitors atrocities overseas and cooperates with foreign governments on potential war crimes, was being eliminated.

Officials at the undersecretary of state level have 30 days to assess how many jobs will be eliminated by the proposed reorganization, which also solidifies the administration's moves to absorb the U.S. Agency for International Development into the State Department, a senior State Department official said.