The State Department has notified staff it will begin firing personnel “soon,” as Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushes forward with a sweeping overhaul of the agency’s structure, according to an internal email sent Thursday evening.
“Soon, the Department will be communicating to individuals affected by the reduction in force,” wrote Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Michael Rigas in a message obtained by CNN.
Sources say the layoffs—known internally as Reductions in Force (RIFs)—could begin as early as Friday.
The move follows the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week to greenlight the Trump administration’s broader effort to reorganize and downsize the federal workforce.
According to a letter sent to Congress in May, the State Department plans to eliminate up to 1,873 domestic jobs from its 18,730-person workforce. An additional 1,575 employees have signaled they would leave voluntarily.
The cuts will impact both civil and foreign service staff, particularly those working in offices slated for closure or overhaul. More than 300 bureaus and offices are affected by the restructuring.
The looming job losses have left many State Department employees anxious and demoralized, uncertain about the futures of the careers they’ve devoted years—sometimes decades—to building.
Critics say the timing couldn’t be worse, with the U.S. trying to navigate complex diplomatic crises in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran.
In remarks from Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Rubio defended the process as “the most deliberate” restructuring of the agency in recent history.
“We very specifically reorganized the State Department,” Rubio said. “There were certain bureaus we wanted to empower—mainly the regional bureaus—and certain functional bureaus that we decided to close.”
Foreign service officers, who often serve abroad, are especially vulnerable if they were assigned to any of the eliminated offices as of May 29, when Rubio formally signed off on the reorganization.
A senior department official emphasized that the decisions were based on the functions of offices, not individual performance:
“If a function no longer aligned with the department’s future direction, it was eliminated. This process was personnel-agnostic.”
Currently, there are no plans to cut positions at overseas posts, the official said.
Still, the firings are drawing heavy criticism from the diplomatic community. Thomas Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said the layoffs come at “a particularly bad time.”
“There are global crises that require experienced diplomats—Ukraine, Gaza, Iran—this is not the moment to weaken our diplomatic corps,” he told CNN.
Yazdgerdi also argued the plan doesn’t account for the unique nature of the foreign service, where personnel are often untethered to specific roles in the way traditional federal workers are. “We’re more like the military,” he said. “We have personal rank, and an up-or-out system. Eliminating an office doesn’t necessarily mean you eliminate the people.”
Even before the Trump administration, the U.S. diplomatic service had been under strain, with embassies unable to fully staff up. By contrast, he noted, China continues to expand its diplomatic presence globally.
Yazdgerdi warned that the firings will impact not only morale, but also recruitment and retention for years to come.
A senior official acknowledged morale has dipped amid weeks of legal uncertainty and delays caused by court battles. The agency had originally aimed to complete the restructuring by July 1, but legal challenges held up the timeline.
“We’re trying to handle this in a way that preserves the dignity of our people—civil servants and foreign service officers alike,” the official said.
“Even if it’s just 10 to 15% of the workforce, for those affected, it’s 100% of their lives. We understand that—and we want to give them every resource possible.”
