Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called the agency “bloated,” yet as violence spiked in the Middle East, staff say they’ve been asked to work extra hours.
The Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the State Department has left much of the workforce exasperated and embittered, tanking morale as extra demands were made to assist U.S. citizens seeking to flee the Middle East amid Israel’s war with Iran, employees say.
At the direction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department informed Congress in May that it planned to reduce its U.S. workforce by more than 15 percent — almost 2,000 people — as part of a sweeping reorganization intended to streamline what he has called a “bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources.” Separately, he has accused certain bureaus within the department of pursuing a “radical political ideology.”
Rubio had set a July 1 timeline for the dismissals, but execution of the plan is contingent on a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court, which is evaluating President Donald Trump’s sweeping attempt to fire federal workers across numerous government agencies. It’s unclear when the court could act.
Amid the wait, State Department staff were asked to work additional hours to help at-risk Americans as fighting between Israel and Iran stirred fears of a full-scale regional crisis. A task force, established on June 12 to manage evacuations, faced an even greater sense of urgency after Trump directed U.S. military intervention in the conflict.
Demoralize them, then make them work harder! That sounds so “Trumpian”!.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/28/state-department-layoffs-trump-rubio
