Trump Admin Purges 1,300 State Department Jobs in Monumental Shake-Up

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

More than 1,300 State Department employees are being laid off Friday as part of a sweeping Trump administration plan to overhaul American diplomacy.

The dismissal of 1,107 civil servants and 246 domestic-based Foreign Service officers comes after months of internal deliberations and a recent Supreme Court decision clearing the legal path for job reductions. The cuts, formalized in notices sent Friday, mark one of the largest forced personnel reductions in the department’s modern history.

Foreign Service officers placed on leave will lose their positions within 120 days. Most civil servants face a 60-day separation period, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press.

The notice justifies the layoffs as part of “streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” targeting “non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices,” and areas where “considerable efficiencies may be found.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, echoing President Donald Trump, defended the cuts in Kuala Lumpur, where he’s attending the ASEAN Regional Forum.

“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people,” Rubio said. “But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions.”

He continued: “Some of these are [vacant] positions that are being eliminated, not people.”