Trump administration begins mass layoffs at US State Department

Officials say it is largest departmental reorganisation in decades

The State Department has begun laying off more than 1,300 diplomats and other employees. Bloomberg

The US State Department on Friday began laying off more than 1,300 diplomats and other employees, as part of an effort by President Donald Trump's administration to slash government spending and shrink the federal workforce.

The so-called reductions in force, or RIFs, include 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service employees based in the US, according to a State Department notice seen by The National.

Including voluntary departures and retirements, nearly 3,000 members of the workforce would leave the department as part of the move.

“The objective from the start was clear: focus resources on policy priority and eliminate redundant functions, empowering our people while increasing accountability,” Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas wrote in an email to State Department employees.

Mr Rigas said it was the “largest reorganisation” effort in the State Department in decades. Until the layoffs, the department had a domestic workforce of about 18,000 people.

A State Department employee who did not wish to be named said farewell emails were pouring in on Friday.

Diplomats-in-residence, many of them senior officers, have been let go, in addition to members of the Foreign Service Institute, the employee added.

The employee said they understood that staff at the Office of Global Women's Issues had been laid off as well.

The layoffs come after the Supreme Court this week ruled in favour of the Trump administration's plans for the mass firings of federal workers.

Mr Trump, who took office in January, campaigned on a promise to reduce the size of the federal government, a long-standing Republican goal.

The Republican Party as a whole sees a large federal government as a wasteful and bloated bureaucracy. Some far-right Republicans also accuse federal employees of being part of a “deep state” conspiracy working to undermine Mr Trump's agenda.

Representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted the State Department layoffs.

“The mass firing of civil service and foreign service employees at the State Department is a reckless and unilateral disarmament of our national security toolbox,” he said in a statement. “Republicans claim to put ‘America First,’ but gutting our diplomatic and development corps does the opposite.”

Soon after taking office, Mr Trump enlisted the help of billionaire Elon Musk, his ally at the time, to slash federal jobs with the aim of reducing spending and eradicating alleged corruption in the federal government.

Under the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, thousands of government projects and jobs were cut.

The US Agency for International Development was dissolved and folded into the State Department after the vast majority of its projects were cancelled.