Mass layoff came days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for US president to gut entire government positions.<\/p>\n
More than 1,350 US State Department employees have been fired in a major diplomatic shake-up ordered by President Donald Trump, in a move critics predict would curb the United States\u2019 influence around the world.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s mass layoff, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n
Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies.<\/p>\n
Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,\u201d said US Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the administration of former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government positions<\/a>.<\/p>\n The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump\u2019s plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees.<\/p>\n The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the \u201cdeep state\u201d. Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don\u2019t need those positions,\u201d Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of his ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<\/a>. \u201cUnderstand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) \u2013 the union representing State Department employees \u2013 condemned the \u201ccatastrophic blow to our national interests\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe oppose this decision in the strongest terms.\u201d<\/p>\n The State Department employed more than 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with about 17,700 in domestic roles.<\/p>\n