US embassies brace for staff cuts; mass gov’t firings start at home
WASHINGTON—US President Donald Trump’s administration has asked embassies worldwide to prepare for staff cuts, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as part of the Republican president’s effort to overhaul the US diplomatic corps.
Meanwhile, the government began firing thousands of people at multiple agencies on Thursday as Trump and his downsizing czar Elon Musk accelerate their purge of America’s federal bureaucracy, union sources and employees familiar with the moves told Reuters.
According to three sources familiar with the same reductions being planned for the embassies, both US and locally employed staff may each be reduced by 10 percent, with a list of the workforce due to be sent to the State Department by Friday.
US embassies around the world employ both diplomats and local staff. Most embassy staff come from the host country, according to the National Museum of American Diplomacy.
At the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, around 60 contractors had been terminated in recent weeks, according to a US official, who also said there was a possibility of further cuts in other bureaus.
‘Workforce of patriots’
The Department of State said it does not comment on internal personnel matters, while its spokesperson also said, “The State Department continues to assess our global posture to ensure we are best positioned to address modern challenges on behalf of the American people.”
On Wednesday, Trump issued an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp the foreign service to ensure “faithful and effective implementation” of his foreign policy agenda.
The order, which follows efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), comes as Trump makes changes to ensure US foreign policy is aligned with his “America First” agenda. He has also repeatedly pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats that he deemed disloyal.
Titled “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations,” the order also says failure to implement the President’s agenda is grounds for professional discipline, which may result in firing personnel.
Termination emails
“The Secretary must maintain an exceptional workforce of patriots to implement this policy effectively,” read the order, which also directs a potential revamp of the Foreign Affairs Manual—a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that lay out how the State Department operates at home and abroad.
Across the government, termination emails have been sent among such agencies as the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages many federal buildings.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides health care for veterans, said it had let go of more than 1,000 employees in their probationary period, while the US Forest Service was set to fire more than 3,000.
The federal overhaul appeared to be widening as Musk aides on Thursday arrived for the first time at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The tax-collection agency has been a longtime target of Republicans who claim, without evidence, that the Biden administration weaponized the agency to target small businesses and middle-class Americans with unnecessary audits.
Trump has defended the effort, saying the federal government is too bloated and that too much money is lost to waste and fraud. The federal government has some $36 trillion in debt and ran a $1.8 trillion deficit last year, and there is bipartisan agreement on the need for government reform.
But critics have questioned the blunt force approach of Musk, who has amassed extraordinary influence in Trump’s presidency.
According to government data, about 280,000 civilian government workers were hired less than two years ago with most still on probation—which makes them easier to terminate.
But firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appeared to be going beyond probationary employees.
Notices went to dozens of term employees, full-time workers who had contracts with end dates, said sources who requested anonymity to avoid any reprisal.
Those firings came after the agency on Tuesday terminated as many as 70 probationary staff members.
At the Office of Personnel Management—the human resources arm of the US government—all probationary staff were fired in a group call on Thursday, two sources said.
No longer ‘in public interest’
Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily. But probationary employees primarily targeted in Thursday’s wave have fewer legal protections.
“The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment with the Agency,” letters sent to at least 45 probationers at the SBA stated. Reuters has seen a copy of the termination letter.
Letters to at least 160 recent hires at the Department of Education, also seen by Reuters, told them that their continued employment “would not be in the public interest.”
Trump on Wednesday reiterated his desire to close the Department of Education.
At the GSA, about 100 probationary employees received termination letters on Wednesday. One employee said he had been receiving excellent performance reviews, but was told this week he will be fired on Friday.
“Up until two weeks ago, this was an absolute dream job. Now it’s become an absolute nightmare because of what is going on. I have small children and a mortgage to pay,” he told Reuters.
Even as the firings commenced, a group of 14 states filed a federal lawsuit in Washington alleging that Trump appointed Musk illegally, giving him “unchecked legal authority” without authorization from the US Congress.
Trump has tasked Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a temporary government agency—to undertake a massive downsizing of the 2.3 million-strong civilian federal workforce.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has sent DOGE members into at least 16 government agencies, where they have gained access to computer systems with sensitive personnel and financial information and sent workers home.
