Rubio announces reorganization of State Department under America First as bureaucrats revolt

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced a major reorganization of the U.S. Department of State to implement President Donald Trump’s America First policies.

The announcement came via Rubio’s X account, with further details contained in a public statement on the State Department’s website and Substack account.

“Today is the day. Under @POTUS’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department,” Rubio wrote on X. “These sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats to put America and Americans first.”

Rubio argues the State Department’s footprint has grown rapidly over the past several decades with soaring costs – and without seeing growth in the effectiveness of American diplomacy.  

Instead, Rubio noted, “The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”  

He added State will be rebuilt “from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies.”  

“Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist,” Rubio said.  

The statement also included a new organizational chart that notably announces the Secretary of State as the administrator of the controversial United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program.  

USAID is the foreign assistance program that doles out U.S. taxpayer money to foreign regimes in an act of “soft power,” to give D.C. greater influence internationally.  

Conservatives have contended the program not only hasn’t been effective, but it’s also been abused by bureaucrats and liberals to spread leftwing ideology globally.  

Documents obtained by the Associated Press say the latest plans announced by Rubio include consolidating 734 bureaus and offices into 602, as well as transitioning 137 offices “to another location within the Department to increase efficiency.”  

The Daily Caller’s email-only newsletter Unfit to Print says Trump loyalists and State Department bureaucrats are engaged “in the midst of a good ol’ fashioned knife fight” over the direction of State under Trump.  

The Rubio announcement could indicate the Trump loyalists are winning, or at least putting their cards on the table.  

The Associated Press recently noted the White House Office of Management and Budget proposed slashing the State Department’s budget by nearly 50%. 

The wire service also predicted that such reductions won’t pass muster with Congress.  

That jibes with the Daily Caller’s newsletter, which contends Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst and Mitch McConnell are quietly quarreling with Rubio over the USAID budget reductions.  

“[Rubio] is getting calls all the time from his senators … when we would get a call from a senator or congressman, all of a sudden [Rubio’s Chief of Staff] Mike Needham and [State spokesperson] Dan Holler are like, ‘oh my gosh, you better do this. You better get this member what they want,’” one Trump administration official told the Daily Caller. “They don’t even flinch when the President issues an executive order. To the contrary, it’s as though it never happened.” 

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters the new reorganization plan is “a road map” to how the department means to reform the diplomatic functions under Trump, but “it is not something where people are being fired today.”   

“It is something that there’s been a congressional notice that has been sent, and so the steps and the procedures that happen through the government are also taking place at this point as well,” Bruce said.  

In a longer opinion piece, Rubio laid out the reasoning at the State Department’s Substack account.  

“The American people deserve a State Department willing and able to advance their safety, security, and prosperity around the world, one respectful of their tax dollars and the sacred trust of government service, and one prepared to meet the immense challenges of the 21st Century,” Rubio wrote. 

“Starting this week, they will have one.”