![Rubio Announces Drastic State Dept. Overhaul [NYT article inside]](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/44326e17-70a0-4867-9223-9e715d9296b0.jpeg){kind=link}
Mr. Rubio released the plan in the form of an organizational chart and a brief official statement, with few other details. The move is the latest by President Trump’s administration to downsize and reshape the government to a degree unseen in generations, which critics have called a shortsightedly blunt assault on the federal bureaucracy.
In the announcement, Mr. Rubio did not give more information on the ideology or ideas to which he objected, but the chart and a Substack post revealed some of his thinking. The most drastic change is the elimination of the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, which is charged with advancing American values around the world.
Some elements of that office, including a bureau for democracy and human rights and one for refugees, would be cut and folded into an office for foreign assistance and humanitarian aid, according to the reorganization chart posted on the State Department website.
The department released an internal fact sheet that provided more details on Mr. Rubio’s plan, including reducing the agency’s total number of offices from 734 to 602, or by 17 percent. It also said that Mr. Rubio had instructed senior officials to deliver plans soon to reduce the number of U.S.-based employees by 15 percent.
The New York Times reported on Sunday on a draft document labeled an “executive order” that outlined plans for a drastic restructuring of the department, including cutting the entire office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights and many other parts of the agency.
On a new State Department account on Substack on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio wrote that the bureau for democracy, human rights and labor had become a “platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas” against conservative leaders — including those in Poland, Hungary and Brazil — and to try to promote an arms embargo against Israel.
Mr. Rubio accused the bureau for population, refugees and migration of sending millions of taxpayer dollars to nongovernment groups that had promoted mass migration, including “the invasion on our southern border.” The language echoed Mr. Trump’s, and Mr. Rubio did not provide evidence for any of his assertions.
As a Republican senator from Florida, Mr. Rubio had been an ardent champion of promoting traditional American values abroad and supported the State Department’s work to that end. But as secretary, he has hewed closely to Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy.
Diplomats and civil service employees are bracing for internal announcements with more details of layoffs and other cuts as senior political appointees carry out the reorganization. Officials say the plan also involves closing some embassies and consulates.
U.S. officials have said the foreign assistance office would also house the remnants of the United States Agency for International Development, which was gutted in recent weeks by Mr. Rubio and other Trump administration officials, in coordination with the conservative billionaire Elon Musk.
In a statement, Mr. Rubio said the State Department’s size and costs had “soared” over the past 15 years and the new plan would sharpen its focus on “America’s core national interests.”
Mr. Rubio said he would combine overlapping offices and eliminate some programs that were not mandated by Congress. But he did not provide examples, and his statement used murky bureaucratic language: “Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality,” he said.
Possible paywall - “Trump Administration Live Updates”
I don’t necessarily see how this is incompatible with the shift in strategy to something like small yard high fence that Democrats favored. Or really the shift to pushing the line that America is a “trad” nation to attempt to undercut Chinese inroads with Latin America and Africa by shifting from the progressive rhetoric which people either hate because it’s not for killing the gays or hate because they’ve come to understand it’s a disguise for imperialism so now it’s time to change the costume the US wears.
I’m sure once Dems get back in office there will be pressure for them to bring back these progressive offices but they’ll say no and say the reason why is America now has new allies who are “traditional” and keeping them is more important because countering China is of paramount importance and changing it now would alienate these people. Same kind of excuses used in the first cold war. The Dems will instead install a handful of below ambassador level posts who very weakly and softly object to the most openly odious kill the gays bills in other nations and are immediately fired every time a Republican administration retakes power.
The JDPON Don thing is honestly a little thought-terminating, as a meme it was funny but some people seem to be increasingly unwilling to consider that the US is implementing some sort of coherent strategy whose core has persisted in action and thinking through Democratic and Republican administrations, implementation details will vary of course across the parties or people in them. Dems will align on this move to trad by choosing to take the message that their loss to Trump was because they were too far left culturally and thus must move to the right as it has ever been.