Restructuring State Department – Right On!

For decades, elitists in the US foreign service, the center of the US State Department, have despised people like me – a political conservative, highly operational, quick to cut, reprogram, and not interested in their precious diplomatic ways. President Trump sees it all, and is about to restructure.

Many years ago, my mission was to run a highly operational, two-billion-dollar part of the State Department. It had 250 airplanes and helicopters, many armed. I was charged with training the Iraqi, Afghan, Kosovo, and Colombian police – making things work, fixing what was broken.

I did that, in the process saved money, delivered results, and learned a lot about how bureaucrats – including foreign service officers – often misdirect, defraud, waste, pad their nests, and imagine they will never be caught. As a former investigator, they got caught in all sorts of things. Some were good, many were bad.

What Trump – with Rubio as his vicar – understands is that dandies and dandelions spread, blow on the wind, propagate until they take over the yard, morph into other things, before long weeds everywhere.

That is how State went from a small offshoot of the presidency – Jefferson had six State personnel, two embassies (London and Paris) and 10 consular outposts – to a monster department, 300 outposts, grand embassies and consulates, big egos, lots of pomp, circumstance, and lots of spending.

Like little white rabbits – and growing up we raised dozens in rural Maine – these bureaucrats multiply and multiply, new offices which become bureaus, which then become permanent, and begin having more offices and bureaus. See? Just rabbits.

So, what is Trump doing? A draft 16-page executive order suggest he will downsize and restructure, He will eliminate many of the offices and bureaus that have grown up without cause, which are unrelated to our national security interests, which serve only those who work for them.

He will deconflict the constant overlap between bureaus, likely shift to a few highly accountable operational bureaus – like the one I led, focused on aviation support, international stabilization, law enforcement, counternarcotics, counterterrorism – since these things affect us here, at home.

He will red line the extra geographic bureaus, pulling them into a tighter formation, much as the Defense Department has “Areas of Responsibility” or “AORs,” with clear and prioritized missions, budgets aligned with US national security interests, and measurable outcomes.

He will probably axe minimally valuable embassies, consulates, and – always expensive – personnel who are often there just for show, replacing them with smaller offices tied to three objectives, strengthening economic, defense, and objective diplomatic ties.

Put differently, the US is respected around the world, but it is not for the parties ambassadors throw, silver spoons, linen napkins, couches leather and white, and talk ever so polite. It is because we have a history of doing the right thing, mean what we say, have won two world wars, have the biggest economy, the most dynamic and creative people, and the largest military in the world.

In the old days, every house had an attic. Kids played in it, dug around in old boxes and chests, put on old clothes, pretended they were something they knew they were not, eventually got called down to supper, and had to put all the old stuff and play stuff and fun away, and get serious. Trump is calling the self-important, self-serving diplomats at State, ones who do little, preen and prod, smile and nod, the ones who always cared less, spent like drunken diplomats, down for supper. The time has come … to restructure the State. Trump is at it. Overdue. Right on!

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).