Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a plan Tuesday to significantly reorganize the State Department, saying the redesign would reverse “decades of bloat and bureaucracy” within the agency.
Rubio unveils sweeping reorganization of State Department
The Trump administration’s proposed shake-up targets human rights programs and others focused on war crimes and democracy.
April 22, 2025
By Adam Taylor
The effort targets some human rights programs and others focused on war crimes and democracy, according to internal documents shared with The Washington Post.
The full extent of the proposed reforms were not immediately apparent. In a post on social media, Rubio said that “region-specific functions would 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.”
At least some of the envisioned reforms and cuts would probably require lawmakers’ consent, as they involve directives that have been mandated by Congress.
Within the State Department, conjecture has swirled for weeks about the likelihood of significant staff reductions and drastic shifts in institutional priorities. In group chats and private messages, current and former officials have circulated screenshots of documents and other speculation, hoping to understand what would happen next and how many jobs could be implicated.
One document purporting to be a draft executive order, widely circulated among current and former officials over the weekend, outlined a more radical plan that involved numerous major changes, including shutting down the Bureau of African Affairs and eliminating numerous outposts across the continent.
Rubio distanced himself from that document, calling it a “hoax” and “fake news.”
Some diplomats and officials worried about the scale of reforms were heartened to learn this month that Pete Marocco, a senior official who had led the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in conjunction with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE Service, had left the department after reported clashes with Rubio.
Even so, it had long been clear that the Trump administration planned major reforms — and significant cuts — to the State Department. The question was not whether cuts would happen, but how big they would be.
This is a developing story. It will be updated. John Hudson, Dan Diamond and Hannah Natanson contributed to this report.