The US State Department is preparing to close many consulates, primarily in Western Europe, in the coming months, and is seeking to cut its workforce worldwide, several U.S. officials said Thursday.
The State Department is also considering the possibility of integrating the bureau of many experts at its Washington headquarters, which works in areas such as human rights, refugees, global criminal justice, women’s issues and efforts to combat human trafficking, officials said.
Last month, Reuters reported that US missions around the world were asked to consider cutting by at least 10% as Donald Trump and his billionaire aide Elon Musk unleashed unprecedented cost-cutting efforts across the US federal workforce.
The Republican president wants to ensure that his bureaucracy is perfectly in line with his “America First” agenda. Last month, he issued an executive order to revamp foreign services in the United States to ensure the “faithful and effective” implementation of his foreign policy agenda.
During his campaign, he repeatedly pledged to “clean out” what he calls a “deep state” by firing officials he deemed dishonest.
Critics say that potential cuts in the US diplomatic footprint, coupled with the dismantling of the US International Development Agency (USAID), risk undermining billions of dollars in aid globally, leaving a dangerous void filled by enemies such as China and Russia.
Trump and Musk say the US government is too big and that aid funded by American taxpayer was spent in a useless and fraudulent way.
Leipzig, Hamburg, Dusseldorf in Germany, Bordeaux and Strasbourg in France and Florence in Italy are one of the list of small consulates that the State Department is considering closing, three officials added that some staff could change as they continue to open.
Authorities said Monday that the department had notified Congress that Washington is planning to close a branch in a Turkish city in Gaziantop, the southeastern city of Turkey, which supports humanitarian activities in northern Syria.
“The State Department continues to appreciate our global attitude to ensure that we are in the best position to address modern challenges on behalf of Americans,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The division operates over 270 diplomatic missions worldwide and over 270 diplomatic missions worldwide, with a workforce of around 70,000 people, according to the website.
