President-elect Donald Trump plans to immediately overhaul the State Department by bringing new officials to top positions.
A person familiar with the situation told Fox News that the new Trump administration will immediately place new staff in key operational roles at the State Department to ensure the department is able to implement Trump’s foreign policy agenda from day one. he said.
Typically, career State Department officials would oversee these key positions while political appointees await Senate confirmation. The Trump team has brought in dozens of “bureaucrats” to ensure that career officials are staffed with bureaucrats aligned with Trump. The person said a high-ranking bureau official has already been identified to replace him as a result of the transition.
The source also said the move will affect more than 20 additional critical roles in the state. Reuters reported last week that Trump administration officials have already asked others to resign, and that a total of about 30 senior positions would be affected by the initiative. They include all those who serve as under-secretaries and oversee key regional, policy and communications bureaus.
Trump transition team asks three state officials to resign: report
President Trump plans to overhaul the State Department (Donald Trump 2024 Campaign)
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the transition team told Fox: “It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek out officials who share President Trump’s vision of putting our country and America’s working men and women first. We have a lot of mistakes to fix. It takes a dedicated team focused on the same goal.”
President Trump’s transition team recently asked three senior diplomats to resign from their positions, Reuters reported.
Career diplomats Derek Hogan, Marcia Bernicat, and Alaina Teplitz, who are said to have been asked to resign, oversee the State Department’s personnel and internal coordination.
According to Reuters, all three career diplomats named in the report have served under Democratic and Republican administrations. Unlike political appointees, diplomats typically do not resign when the president leaves office.
Trump has pursued the “deep state” throughout his political career, and the move could be seen as part of an effort to fundamentally change government at the bureaucratic level.
President Trump has never hidden his disdain for the government agency in charge of foreign relations, calling it the “Department of the Deep State” during his first term, a term the career diplomat used to reverse his own policies. This reflects his belief that he is working for the cause.
President Trump is likely to work in tandem with his nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who said during his confirmation hearing that state officials need to embrace Trump’s “America First” policies. He promised to make government agencies “relevant again.”
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“What has happened over the last 20 years under multiple administrations is that the State Department’s influence has declined at the expense of other agencies, and at the expense of the National Security Council, because until the State Department takes action, “It takes a lot of time,” Rubio said.
Rubio said that in today’s federal bureaucracy, “the department’s core mission is not clearly defined,” and “it is our duty to define it.” (Joe Radle/Getty Images)
“We want the State Department to be on its right foot again,” Rubio said. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“As a result, you get less and less invited to meetings because results take too long, and meetings stop giving you responsibility for things.”
He said that in today’s federal bureaucracy, “the department’s core mission is not clearly defined,” and “it is our duty to define it.”
“We want the State Department to be relevant again because we have a deep pool of talented people who are subject matter experts and have diplomatic skills. It is underutilized because, more and more, each time a problem arises, We’ve seen the State Department become marginalized because of internal inertia. Because of the way its structure works, we have to have a seat at the decision-making table, and the State Department is creative. “It must be a source of ideas and effective implementation,” he added.
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Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters that the state department is trying to eliminate state employees who were directing so-called “woke” funding programs. said.
“If you do a drag show overseas and try to find this nebulous connection without tying things to U.S. national security interests, you’re writing grants that unfairly support a radical agenda. If there are people out there, they should be aware that we are looking for them, and we will look for the creation of authorities within the State Department to ensure that their presence does not continue.”
Rich Edson currently serves as a senior national correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in October 2007 as Washington correspondent and transitioned to FNC in 2015.
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