Leaked memo reveals plan for huge State Department overhaul: Africa, climate and women’s issues all primed for the chop
A leaked draft of an executive order to reorganize the U.S. State Department reveals plans to slash entire departments and bureaus dealing with the entire continent of Africa, human rights, women’s rights, international religious freedom, and climate change while tightening political control over the foreign service and handing more authority to the White House and political appointees.
The contents of the memorandum, which does not follow the usual structure of executive orders, were first reported by The New York Times and Bloomberg.
The State Department has denied the document’s authenticity, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissing it as a “hoax” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
But the specifics of the draft document, which was obtained and reviewed by The Independent, track closely with Trump administration efforts to undercut the institutional knowledge and authority of nonpartisan civil servants in other parts of the executive branch as well as the administration’s push to change the conduct of American foreign relations to a more transactional model that prioritizes raw, naked self-interest over traditional values-based diplomacy that works through multilateral alliances.
It lays out what it calls a “disciplined reorganization” of the department that would eliminate a dedicated bureau for African Affairs in favor of a White House-run “Special Envoy Office for African Affairs” that would focus on counterterrorism, obtaining access to “critical natural resources,” and conduct only “select bilateral diplomacy” on “particular temporary matters” while shuttering most of the department’s embassies on the African continent.
It would also eliminate the department’s Office of Women’s Global Issues, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, the Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights, and close down the department’s offices and bureaux responsible for public diplomacy and public affairs, educational and cultural outreach, and replace the Office of Foreign Assistance with a new “humanitarian affairs” bureau to carry out “limited functions” under supervision of a “Government Efficiency Department” and requiring “explicit written approval” from the president for “all positions and duties” related to foreign aid.
If enacted, the plan would represent the most significant reorganization of the department since it was founded in 1789. It would cement a seismic realignment of America’s foreign policy apparatus from a professionalized foreign service dedicated to advancing democracy, human rights and other traditional American values to a more politically insular and tightly controlled diplomatic cadre operating with less autonomy and more ideological scrutiny under tighter control from the White House.
The move would also be a significant step towards the reimagining of the foreign aid ecosystem which State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce and others have been promising for months. The agency’s press secretary, in repeated instances at daily news briefings, has assured journalists that the US’s commitment to foreign aid has not wavered, and is instead being transformed into a more efficient process.
By requiring the president to personally sign off on “all positions and duties” related to America’s foreign aid strategy, the new process will implicitly add at least one new layer of red tape to that process — a layer controlled by a commander-in-chief who has been publicly dismissive of the utility of soft power.
The drastic nature of the proposed reorganization of the State Department comes on the heels of reports that the Trump administration is considering slashing the department’s budget by half while shuttering nearly thirty diplomatic missions in places not considered a priority by the White House.
The department says it currently employs 11,000 civil servants and boasts a 13.000 member foreign service as well as 45,000 local employees who work at American diplomatic facilities around the world.
According to the draft reorganization plan, those 13,000 foreign service officers and 11,000 civil servants would be offered voluntary buyouts, while new prospective foreign service members would no longer be able to count on an objective examination for entry into the foreign service.
Instead, the department will begin using subjective criteria including evaluations of “demonstrated charisma and regional knowledge” as well as “verbal authenticity and public speaking ability” and other criteria such as “alignment with the President’s foreign policy vision” to determine who can become a career U.S. diplomat.
News of the draft memo comes as the shuttering of USAID programs is already having a drastic effect across the continent, including in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Trump executive order halting foreign aid programs earlier this year also froze funding for the Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) program which is responsible for dispensing life-saving medication to treat those suffering with the disease. State Department officials would not confirm whether PEPFAR funding would be completely reinstated at any point.
