State Department, layoffs
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State Department, Trump
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A senior State Department official said Friday the department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States.
The State Department began firing more than 1,350 U.S.-based employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine U.S. ability to defend and promote U.S. interests abroad.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tour the Texas flood devastation and the State Department begins laying employees.
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New York Magazine on MSNTrump’s Mass State Department Layoffs Upend Foreign PolicyAlong with rescissions hitting foreign aid, the new round of firings shows Trump is still bent on tearing down bipartisan foreign-policy traditions.
No State Department official publicly said when the first notices for the planned layoffs would be sent, but the widespread expectation is for the terminations to start as soon as Friday.
According to the Associated Press, 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers were sent layoff notices Friday. They were informed that their positions were being “abolished” and that those notified would lose access to the State Department at 5 p.m.
Donald Trump likes to say he’s about America first. What we’re witnessing here is America in retreat,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen told HuffPost at a rally for 1,353 dismissed diplomats.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists he is streamlining a bloated department, but critics warn the cost to America’s standing and influence could be high.