Trump Guts Department of State and staff warn that people should be afraid

Washington-When the Trump administration began on Friday its dismissal of 1,353 employees in the State Department, the dismissed employees described the shock, a chaotic process of layoffs and concern for the ramifications of gartering the diplomatic experience of the government.

“They moved us three times in last week, telling us that we were going to merge into different offices … There is no transparency, no official communication, there is nothing, just disrespect for the people who had been serving this country for many years,” said Andrea Samuelson, who was fired after 16 years in the department.

Another finished employee, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, told News themezone that they had worked in an office focused on keeping Americans safe, and that the public must be cautious with the statements of the Secretary of State for Marco Rubio that their changes in the State Department will rationalize their work.

“People should feel scared: they will be less safe regardless of what this administration says,” said the employee, saying that his dismissal “came out of nowhere.”

State Department officials and Congress sources previously told News themezone that Rubio’s decision -making on what personnel and offices to cut seemed arbitrary and involved little transparency. Several officials dismissed on Friday said they had not anticipated that they or their offices would be affected.

The affected employees of the State Department spoke with News themezone during an afternoon rally in front of the agency. Dozens of people, including two Democratic legislators, Senator Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and the representative his Subramanyam (Virginia), gathered to applaud, or “applaud” the finished employees, whose rows included both career official and foreign service officials. When those officials left the imminent building Harry S. Truman, many cried visibly and several carried plaques; Others came out and joined the crowd waiting, tacitly projecting the challenge. The crowd held signs with messages such as “thanks to United States diplomats” and “diplomacy is national security.”

“Seeing them treated so badly, but also harms our country because this decreases our influence abroad,” Van Hollen told News themezone. “Do you know the people who are going to encourage this? They are our adversaries, they will celebrate.

Akbar Shahid Ahmed/News themezone

Last month, a senior state department official defended the review in an email to News themezone.

“The Rubio Secretary, under the leadership of President Trump, is working to consolidate and strengthen the workforce of the State Department. The leadership of the department has been dozens of reports and hearings of the Congress regarding the reorganization. The proposed reorganization follows all the requirements of Congress. The consultation with the Congress will continue to ensure a state department that best best reflects the national interests of the United States,” the official interests wrote.

Samuelson argued: “Calling a process would be a joke.”

A fired official said that the process was “very confusing”, preventing affected employees from guaranteeing that the necessary knowledge and experience are shared with colleagues that remain.

“He was implementing legislation that he approved under the first Trump administration and apparently had the support of the Rubio Secretary, so there were reasons to believe that would live,” added the official, who also spoke under condition of anonymity, qualifying his role as “a dreamed work.”

“The bureaucracy may seem opaque. Inside, only many people work together,” said the official.

Akbar Shahid Ahmed/News themezone

News themezone witnessed hugs among employees, people who offer to help each other to find jobs and songs of others who are not directly affected by dismissal. The former officials of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Trump administration closed on July 1, and formerly appointed in the State Department of President Joe Biden were among the multitude of followers.

Tom Rhodes, a former USAID employee, took a sign that said “destroying ≠ reform.” He said that he had been sent to Peru working on “protecting US and Western interests against Chinese aggression and environmental crime … All that work is impossible now.”

Akbar Shahid Ahmed/News themezone

An external service officer who retired after 34 years, Bob Gilchrist, described the moment as “a tragic day for our country” when the government lost “dedicated public servants who have worked for Republican and Democratic administrations.”

The speakers of the demonstration led the songs to “defend themselves” and told the former employees of the State Department that they should speak since they were no longer subject to government restrictions.

Attendees passed out small flyers with a firm message, printed under an American flag: “Here they worked to the experts of the United States in democracy, human rights (yes, which include women, LGBTQ+ and the rights of minorities), electoral security, freedom of expression, privacy, about corruption, violent extremism and disinformation, and more,” he said. “You just released them and hundreds of their colleagues in nature … in the United States of America.

Akbar Shahid Ahmed/News themezone