The State Department is aggressively trying to force out its most senior foreign service officers, according to nine current and former staff, who suggested that Trump administration officials are seeking to cast aside veteran personnel who they view as standing in the way of their agenda.
At the same time, the current and former employees said, State is recruiting and promoting new staff who they view as more politically loyal.
“The State Department is trying to get people to quit,” said one current foreign service officer, who was granted anonymity out of fear or retribution.
This effort comes more than a year after the State Department carried out massive layoffs, hollowing out the United States’ international foreign service footprint. Those who have spent decades in the State Department have said the administration’s approach has weakened relationships abroad, and led to deficient leadership internally and less informed foreign policy decisions.
Trending
The department has shrunk the number of roles available to senior foreign servants by freezing positions or downgrading them to lower levels, the State Department personnel said.
Many top-ranked career staff have voluntarily headed to the exits as their careers are stalled. Top political staff at the department have directly asked some long-tenured personnel to retire, former employees said. They have reassigned other top career staff into the Administration Bureau, what employees consider to be a “purgatory” where employees’ careers “go to die.”
“A whole lot of senior foreign service have left because there are no jobs for them,” a second current foreign service officer said.
The State Department, like the military, operates an “up-or-out” system, meaning staff could be forced out if they do not get promoted quickly enough.
The State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees last year. Senior foreign service officers were disproportionately targeted in those cuts.
Around 3,500 foreign service employees have left the State Department since President Donald Trump retook office, according to the American Foreign Service Association, and a majority of those were in the senior ranks or one level below. Departing employees who have gone through the mandatory retirement classes this year said their size had grown by orders of magnitude and the department has been forced to hold sessions more often.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said The Washington Sun’s reporting validated the agency’s efforts.
“Those bureaucrats who are complaining to the press prove the point that they shouldn’t have, and can’t be, trusted with sensitive information,” Pigott said.
The department is seeking out politically aligned staff through other means. It has increasingly leaned on the Ben Franklin Fellowship — which a Trump-aligned group of current and former State officials founded in 2024 — to identify individuals to hire and promote, current and former staff said. Individuals aligned with the group are disproportionately in senior roles. Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau is one of the Ben Franklin Fellows.
“There are people who are supportive of what is happening,” said Kelly Adams-Smith, who ended her 28-year foreign service career after the Trump administration withdrew her nomination to serve as ambassador to Moldova. “They are finding, much to their surprise, very senior positions in the department.”
One person said they participated in an interview panel for a senior-level position and were told by someone close to political leadership that the process was just for show and it had been predetermined the job was going to a Ben Franklin Fellow.
Earlier this year, State awarded a $1 million, no-bid contract to a recruitment firm whose CEO has said more Christians should serve in government and hiring at the department had become too “woke.” State also added a “fidelity” section to the performance evaluation process, requiring managers to assess employees’ commitment to “completely aligning oneself and one’s team to the most current [U.S. government] goals.”
Outside the favored circles, the administration has made it more difficult for foreign service officers to climb the ranks. This fall’s bidding cycles — the process through which a large swath of the diplomatic corps find new assignments each year — have left staff with fewer senior positions available than ever before.
Roles that were typically set aside for senior foreign service officers, such as an embassy’s deputy chief of mission, have been downgraded to a lower rank. For the second year in a row, embassies have also received directives to freeze a certain number of positions. Additionally, Trump is setting aside an usually small number of ambassadorships for career staff — and nearly half of those roles remain vacant.
“It’s like musical chairs but taking chairs away faster so people wind up with nowhere to go,” said a State employee who recently left the department.
Even senior employees willing to serve in lower positions have been told they would not be selected for those roles, employees said.
The State Department confirmed that it was not prioritizing years of service for senior jobs.
The policy changes, political pressure and a wave of resignations are having a significant impact on U.S. diplomacy, the current and former staff said.
Employees now feel reluctant to offer their views on key matters, something staff described as historically fundamental to the nation’s diplomatic success. Doing so could endanger their chances of promotion or risk other efforts to sideline their careers, they said.
“People are afraid to speak out, to voice their opinions even if they believe their opinions need to be heard,” said one foreign service officer who recently left the department.
Newer employees with less experience and fewer relationships abroad are in critical positions, both because of who the Trump administration is selecting and more junior workers are less likely to feel financially secure enough to step down.
“Someone who can retire or is more economically secure is more likely to tell the emperor that the emperor has no clothes,” one of the recently departed foreign service officers said. “Junior people are more likely to just say yes.”
That will lead to less informed foreign policy decisions, the person said.
“Good policy depends on good information,” the former employee said. “If you’re not getting the good information because people are afraid to share, then you are likely to have bad policy.”
Adams-Smith noted that when experienced diplomats leave the department, the agency also loses their “networks of contacts” abroad.
She had planned to continue serving at State, but reversed course after she realized the administration was “not interested in expert advice.”
“There was no place for me and it was clear my expertise was not going to be valued or welcome,” Adams-Smith said. “With the way they were handling things, it was clear it was time to go.”
Pigott, the department spokesperson, said State is willing to hear advice from “patriotic Americans.”
“Secretary [Marco] Rubio values candid insights from patriotic Americans who have chosen to serve their country,” he said. “What we will not tolerate is people using their positions to actively undermine the duly elected president’s objectives.”
Another recently retired foreign service officer said that replacing long-tenured staff with greener employees will lead to a “10-year gap where you don’t have seasoned expertise in bilateral, multilateral and interagency contexts. That will be detrimental to American interests.”
A diplomat who recently left the department said the administration’s approach could soon lead to a crisis.
“Honest advice is not being rendered,” the former employee said. “At some point, god forbid, something is going to come back and bite them, and maybe all of us, in the behind.”
Author
