USA Africa Dialogue Series - Trump to Overhaul State Department

 

Trump Administration Draft Order Calls for Drastic Overhaul of State Department

 

The draft executive order, which President Trump is expected to sign, would eliminate Africa operations and shut down bureaus working on democracy, human rights, and refugee issues.

 

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The State Department headquarters in Washington.Credit...Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

By Edward Wong

 

Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent and former Beijing bureau chief who reports on foreign policy from Washington and often travels with the secretary of state.

 

April 20, 2025Updated 9:02 a.m. ET

 

A draft of a Trump administration executive order proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department, including eliminating almost all of its Africa operations and shutting down embassies and consulates across the continent.

 

The draft also calls for cutting offices at State Department headquarters that address climate change and refugee issues, as well as democracy and human rights concerns.

 

The purpose of the executive order, which could be signed soon by President Trump, is to impose "a disciplined reorganization" of the State Department and "streamline mission delivery" while cutting "waste, fraud and abuse," according to a copy of the 16-page draft order obtained by The New York Times. The department is supposed to make the changes by Oct. 1.

 

Some of the proposed changes outlined in the draft document would require congressional notification and no doubt be challenged by lawmakers, including mass closures of diplomatic missions and headquarters bureaus, as well as an overhaul of the diplomatic corps. Substantial parts of it, if officials tried to enact them, would likely face lawsuits.

 

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Elements of the executive order could change before final White House review or before Mr. Trump signs it, if he decides to do so. Neither the State Department nor the White House National Security Council had immediate comment on the draft order early Sunday.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a short comment on social media after this article was published calling it "fake news."

 

The document began circulating among current and former U.S. diplomats and other officials on Saturday. It was not immediately clear who had compiled the document or what stage of internal debates over a restructuring of the State Department it reflected. It is one of several recent documents proposing changes to the State Department, and internal administration conversations take place daily on possible actions.

 

Major structural changes to the State Department would be accompanied by efforts to lay off both career diplomats, known as foreign service officers, and civil service employees, who usually work in the department's headquarters in Washington, said current and former U.S. officials familiar with the plans. The department would begin putting large numbers of workers on paid leave and sending out notices of termination, they said.

 

 

The draft executive order calls for ending the foreign service exam for aspiring diplomats, and it lays out new criteria for hiring, including "alignment with the president's foreign policy vision."

 

The draft says the department must greatly expand its use of artificial intelligence to help draft documents, and to undertake "policy development and review" and "operational planning."

 

The proposed reorganization would get rid of regional bureaus that help make and enact policy in large parts of the globe.

 

 

Instead, the draft says, those functions would fall under four "corps": Eurasia Corps, consisting of Europe, Russia and Central Asia; Mid-East Corps, consisting of Arab nations, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan; Latin America Corps, consisting of Central America, South America and the Caribbean; and Indo-Pacific Corps, consisting of East Asia, Southeast Asia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

 

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Brussels this month.Credit...Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin

 

One of the most drastic proposed changes would be eliminating the bureau of African affairs, which oversees policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It would be replaced by a much smaller special envoy office for African affairs that would report to the White House National Security Council. The office would focus on a handful of issues, including "coordinated counterterrorism operations" and "strategic extraction and trade of critical natural resources."

 

The draft also said all "nonessential" embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa would be closed by Oct. 1. Diplomats would be sent to Africa on "targeted, mission-driven deployments," the document said.

 

Canada operations would be put into a new North American affairs office under Mr. Rubio's authority, and it would be run by a "significantly reduced team," the draft said. The department would also severely shrink the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.

 

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The department would eliminate a bureau overseeing democracy and human rights issues; one that handles refugees and migration; and another that works with international organizations. The under secretary position overseeing the first two bureaus would be cut. So would the office of the under secretary of public diplomacy and public affairs.

 

The department would also get rid of the position of the special envoy for climate.

 

The department would establish a new senior position, the under secretary for transnational threat elimination, to oversee counternarcotics policy and other issues, the draft memo said.

 

The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance would absorb the remnants of the United States Agency for International Development, which has been gutted over the last two months by Mr. Rubio and other members of the Trump administration.

 

As for personnel, the memo said, the department needs to move from its "current outdated and disorganized generalist global rotation model to a smarter, strategic, regionally specialized career service framework to maximize expertise."

 

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That means people trying to get into the Foreign Service would choose during the application process which regional corps they want to work in.

 

The department would offer buyouts to foreign service and civil service officers until Sept. 30, the draft said.

 

The draft order also calls for narrowing Fulbright scholarships so that they are given only to students doing master's-level studies in national security matters.

 

And it says the department will end its contract with Howard University, a historically Black institution, to recruit candidates for the Rangel and Pickering fellowships, which are to be terminated. The goal of those fellowships has been to help students from underrepresented groups get a chance at entering the Foreign Service soon after graduation.

 

The draft executive order is one of several internal documents that have circulated in the administration in recent days laying out proposed changes to the State Department. Another memo outlines a proposed cut of nearly 50 percent to the agency's budget in the next fiscal year. Yet another internal memo proposes cutting 10 embassies and 17 consulates.

 

Greg Jaffe contributed reporting.

 

Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department.

 

See more on: U.S. Politics, Marco Rubio, Foreign Service (US), National Security Council, State Department, Agency for International Development

 

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On Sun, Apr 20, 2025, 2:17 PM Gee Kay <gkerley@gmail.com> wrote:

I wonder where the writer of this article got the notion that there is a crack in Ijaw nation concerning the Fubara/Wike row. 

 

There is no crack in Ijaw nation. Instead some dumb heads are spewing trash largely because they could not get a piece of the Rivers pie through Fubara. They say Fubara is stingy. Can't blame him. 

 

As a matter of fact, the only cracks are within the groups themselves. 

 

GK

 

 

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Wike/Fubara row: Crack in Ijaw nation

… As Tompolo, Eradiri, Lokpobiri seek alternative tactic

By Emma Amaize, South-South Regional Editor

UNTIL the Ibe-Ebidouwei of the Ijaw nation and Chairman of the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL), High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, spoke, last week, it was inexplicit that prominent Ijaw leaders had a disagreement on how the Ijaw nation handled the political crisis between the suspended Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, and his estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike.

Fubara, an Ijaw from the Opobo area of Rivers State, squared up to his former boss and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, before and immediately after President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the state and put him on the back burner on March 18.

Wike is from the Ikwerre ethnic group in Rivers State.

Ijaw leaders, who took up the battle as an Ijaw fight, advised him not to kowtow before Wike. They said he was governor, and there was nothing Wike would do about it until 2027.

They held a series of meetings within and outside the Government House, Port Harcourt, with Fubara, while some youths, supposedly militants, threatened to bomb oil installations in the oil-rich region and ground the nation's economy should the lawmakers, who had initiated the impeachment process against Fubara, succeed in impeaching him as designed.

Since Fubara exited the seat of power, the chorus leaders urging him to fight on, saying that nobody could remove him as governor of Rivers State have cocooned themselves.
And with its hard-hitting position on Wike, leaders of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the umbrella body of traditional rulers, leaders, and stakeholders of the coastal states of the Niger Delta, could not summon the FCT Minister, who does not see them as an impartial arbiter.

There is no commanding body of South-South leaders that Wike is willing to listen to regarding Fubara, and he has vowed lately that he would not reconcile with the governor.
Could there have been any difference if the late elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, from Kiagbodo, Delta State, were alive?
It might not have been because Wike had already fallen out with Clark before his death for taking sides with Fubara.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan from the Otuoke community in Bayelsa State reportedly threw his weight behind Fubara.
Despite the criticism, many believe that the current Chairman of the Ijaw National Council (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, put in his best to stave off the suspension of Fubara, but President Bola Tinubu, Wike, and the federal forces they amassed were stronger than the governor, himself (Okaba), and other Ijaw leaders who opposed them.

Tompolo's stand

Speaking on his 54th birthday, last week, at the Aziza Temple in Gbaramatu Clan, Delta State, Tompolo, the former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the now-defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), for the first time, implied that some individuals handled the conflict between Wike and Fubara in an indelicate manner.

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Tompolo, whom Ijaw leaders and stakeholders accused of betraying the Ijaw nation in the dispute between his friend, Wike, and Fubara, stated that Fubara would return to his position as governor of Rivers State and said talks with Wike were still in progress.

His words: "On the issue in Rivers State, because I have not spoken, they say I have betrayed the Ijaw nation, but I cannot betray the Ijaw nation.
"I have spent all my life fighting for the Ijaw, but we have passed the stage of responding to Wike's kind of statement; we are no longer at that level.
"I assure you that Governor Fubara will return as governor; we are already discussing it. Both he and Wike are like father and son.

"Before he became governor, many Ijaws were against him, yet Wike was instrumental to his emergence, just as we also supported Wike.

"And just like I will not accept rebellion from my son, I will also not cause more problems. "Wike is angry, but he has to bring his temper down for the good of all. We will dialogue and resolve all lingering issues, and again, Fubara will return to his seat.

"I have sat on the throne of my fathers, and all that is lost will return to glory. The Ijaws will never be a conquered people. If Ijaws choose to go to war, the heavens will join us, and I have never fought a battle and lost."

Wike on forgiveness

Responding to Tompolo's subtlety, Wike said that Fubara had not asked for forgiveness, so there was no basis for forgiving him. His media aide, Lere Olayinka, quoted the Minister as saying that forgiveness requires an acknowledgment of wrongdoing and a direct plea for pardon, neither of which Fubara had made.

The statement read in part, "There is no offense. It is when somebody has offended you personally that you are talking about the person seeking forgiveness or whatever.

"As Christians, let's now assume that Fubara has offended the minister. Do you forgive someone who has not come to you to seek forgiveness?
"The person who has wronged you must first agree that he has wronged you. Let's assume that Fubara has offended the minister. Has he come to seek forgiveness? I'm not saying there is an offense and there should be forgiveness, but he has not even come for forgiveness.

"The minister has never said that Fubara offended him personally. He only said that Fubara should govern by the rule of law and that Fubara should not throw away those who risked their lives and resources—and that is not too much to ask.

"Those who worked to make you governor, don't throw them away like that. So, that is not about forgiveness. If there is one person Fubara would say he has offended, it should be the president.
"He is the one to go for soul-searching because throughout the time he was working with this same Wike, throughout the time Wike faced the bullet for him, Wike was not a bad person then.

"So, at what point did Wike become a bad person to him? He should ask himself. When did Wike become somebody that Fubara would be that bold as to tell him that he would deal with him? At what point?"
"It's like asking a doctor to prescribe medicine for a sick person, but the person was not convinced to take it. What's the result?"

Eradiri tackles Fubara, INC

Before Tompolo opened up, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and former Labour Party governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, Udengs Eradiri, had censured Fubara for mishandling the row between him and his alienated political godfather.
Eradiri said, "As for Governor Fubara, he is incompetent which has brought all this negative energy. He should not involve the Ijaw people in his political disputes. Let him tell us how he has supported Ijaw activities or empowered Ijaw people.
"I advise Fubara to go and kneel before Wike and beg for forgiveness. Those who are deceiving him have no courage. They go cap in hand to Wike, beg for forgiveness, and then come out pretending to be Ijaw lions.

"How many Ijaws from Rivers State did he empower during his tenure? How many IYC comrades in the Eastern Zone were appointed as local government area chairmen, commissioners, or other significant roles?"
The former IYC President also pooh-poohed the Ijaw National Congress (INC), accusing the group of undermining its credibility by becoming involved in the political infighting in Rivers.

He cautioned that partisan politics were harming the Ijaw people's reputation and urged the INC to stay away from them.

"INC should not be romancing the governor's egos. The institution is bigger than any individual, and when you diminish it before incompetent governors, it becomes open to ridicule," he added.

IYC President kick-starts attack on Ijaw leaders
The first to criticize the Ijaw nation's leadership over purported poor handling of the Fubara/Wike crisis was Jonathan Lokpobiri, the President of the IYC.

Jonathan said, "Permit me to reflect on the state we are in as the Ijaw nation regarding the state of emergency in Rivers State. I can, with all sense of responsibility and conviction, state that if we had applied wisdom in the management of this crisis in Rivers, we would not be where we are today.
"Instead of using wisdom in matters we can nip in the bud, we chose to threaten war, and we were not prepared for a state of emergency in Rivers.

"I can, with all sense of responsibility and conviction, state that if we had applied wisdom in the management of this crisis in Rivers, we would not be where we are today.

"Instead of using wisdom in matters we can nip in the bud, we chose to threaten war that we were not prepared for.
"People, in the name of struggle, even in the matters we can nip in the bud and caution ourselves internally, rush to the media and threaten war and allow the enemies to fortify themselves for it, and when the war comes, we no longer speak.

"People speak carelessly in an attempt to put an ethnic group into an avoidable war. For those who threatened fire and brimstone, the war came, but I didn't hear their voices anymore.
"We must be wise in prosecuting the struggles of the Niger Delta.
"If this was how our leaders went about their struggle, I am not sure anybody would have respected the Ijaw nation.

"Most of those making unguarded statements are people we clap for without cautioning them.
"There is no war between Ijaw and Ikwerre and any other ethnic group. If the Ikwerre ethnic group had responded to our unguarded statements, there would be war already in Rivers.

"Sometimes wisdom is stronger than the arms we think we have gathered. If we had solved this problem internally as we advised earlier, we wouldn't have gotten to this embarrassing moment of a state of emergency.
"I expected missiles to flow when this state of emergency was declared, but those who threatened the war never said anything anymore".

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