The State Department is moving forward with sweeping layoffs following a major Supreme Court victory for President Donald Trump. More than 1,500 employees will receive “Reduction in Force” (RIF) notices in the coming days, according to an internal memo obtained Thursday evening.
The move comes after the Supreme Court lifted a lower court injunction earlier this week, clearing the way for the Trump administration to proceed with its long-planned overhaul of federal agencies.
In an email sent Thursday from Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Michael Rigas, State Department employees were informed that the department would soon enter its final phase of reorganization. The email emphasized a shift toward what Rigas called “results-driven diplomacy.”
“Secretary Rubio, at the direction of President Trump, has undertaken a historic reorganization of the State Department,” a senior official told The Daily Wire. “The America First State Department will better serve the American people.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio first unveiled the reorganization in April, arguing that the department had become bloated and inefficient over time. “State’s domestic operations have grown exponentially, resulting in more bureaucracy, higher costs, and fewer results for the American people,” Rubio said when the plan was submitted to Congress in May.
The plan focuses on eliminating redundant offices and staff, reducing administrative overhead, and reallocating resources toward core diplomatic missions and national security priorities. Rubio described the overhaul as the most significant in decades and emphasized that the aim was to build a “more agile department.”
“Since my first day as Secretary, I have said that this Department must move at the speed of relevancy,” Rubio noted. “Today, we took the next step in that process by notifying Congress of how we plan to do that.”
Thursday’s RIF notices mark a major milestone in the Trump administration’s effort to trim what it views as a bloated federal bureaucracy. The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the president’s authority to restructure agencies was hailed by administration officials as a green light to continue reforms across the federal government.
According to the State Department, further guidance will be released in the coming weeks, but the focus moving forward will be “streamlining operations and strengthening America’s ability to project power and diplomacy abroad.”
“On behalf of Department leadership, we extend our gratitude for your hard work and commitment to executing this reorganization,” Rigas wrote in closing. “We are building a department that puts America first.”