An April 20 article in the New York Times claims that the Trump administration is considering a “drastic restructuring” of the State Department, including cutting staff and closing embassies. The plans are part of a draft Executive Order which the Times claims to have seen. The story includes a comment from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had dismissed a previous Times story on the topic (written a week earlier, when the restructuring was a mere “memo") as “fake news.”
“A draft of a Trump administration executive order proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department that includes eliminating almost all of its Africa operations and shutting down embassies and consulates across the continent,” says the opening of the long article, which further claims that the administration also proposes “cutting offices at State Department headquarters that address climate change and refugee issues, as well as democracy and human rights concerns.”
One of the most significant changes the document called for is the elimination of the Bureau of African Affairs, which coordinates U.S. policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. It would be replaced by a scaled-down envoy office that would report to the National Security Council. This smaller office would focus on a small number of topics, including “counterterrorism operations” and “strategic extraction and trade of critical natural resources,” the Times reports. Changes in policy would become effective on Oct 1.
