Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed it was “fake news,” but purported plans to shutter huge sections of the Department of State sent shivers down the spines of U.S. diplomats over the weekend.
An alleged draft order circulated through the State Department over the weekend outlining a complete overhaul of the agency to “streamline mission delivery” while eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse,” according to The New York Times. The plan recommended eliminating the department’s bureaus focusing on African affairs and all “non-essential embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa.” It would also shutter bureaus on democracy and human rights, refugees and migration, and one that works with international organizations. It would abolish the special envoy on climate and shrink the U.S. diplomatic presence in Canada to a “significantly reduced team” overseen by Rubio himself.
The document also pitched changes to how the foreign service works, ending an “outdated and disorganized generalist global rotation model” for a model that promotes specialization in one particular area. The plan called to terminate the foreign service’s contract to recruit fellowship candidates from Howard University, a historically Black institution.
Rubio responded to the report in a post on X Sunday, writing that it was “fake news.” But the proposed changes reportedly rattled diplomats, who thought the memo could be real, according to Politico.
“There’s a lot that could be reformed, but you could give infinite monkeys infinite typewriters, and they would come up with something better than that,” said one U.S. diplomat who spoke to Politico. They called the plan “bonkers crazypants.”
Amid the massive cuts proposed by the Trump administration, it’s no surprise that the radical reshuffling seemed like the real thing. Last month, Politico reported that the Trump administration was planning to cut the State Department’s budget by nearly half, zeroing out the funding for programs to promote democratic processes and counter drug-trafficking, and shuttering up to three dozen embassies. This proposal would shrink the department’s budget from $54.4 billion in 2025 to $28.4 billion in 2026.
Last week, a memorandum that was part of a broader budget for 2026 that is due to the Office of Budget Management outlined a plan to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates. This includes U.S. missions in Eritrea, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Scotland, and South Sudan, as well as five outposts in France and two in Germany.
Politico reported that there was significant reason to doubt the veracity of last week’s memo, which was not consistent with other communications from the Trump administration to Congress and did not follow the typical structure of an executive order.
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