When someone is told they are fat and should shed a couple of pounds, they tend to get rather angry. Defensive.
Such was the case on July 11, when Marco Rubio and the Trump State Department launched their first effort to trim the bureaucratic fat in Foggy Bottom, sending over 1,300 government workers to the unemployment line. The move was met with tears, doom-and-gloom handwringing and legacy media reports on why the cuts, though part of a broader effort to lay off even more workers, would spell doom for American diplomacy and foreign policy.
The Washington Post, citing current and former diplomats, reported that the layoffs “will degrade America’s standing in the world and curb U.S. soft power.” In a similar story, The New York Times said “the job cuts will drain the department of expertise and batter the morale of those who remain” and “undermine” the country’s “moral purpose that, however imperfectly and inconsistently applied, has been a source of pride for generations of Americans.” The key words here: imperfectly and inconsistently. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a free weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)
Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee also lambasted the reduction-in-force (RIF), claiming it puts American national security and prosperity “at risk.”
“During a time of increasingly complex and wide-spread challenges to U.S. national security, this administration should be strengthening our diplomatic corps—an irreplaceable instrument of U.S. power and leadership—not weakening it,” they wrote. “However, RIFs would severely undermine the Department’s ability to achieve U.S. foreign policy interests, putting our nation’s security, strength, and prosperity at risk.”
Meanwhile, it appears laid-off workers didn’t take the news so well. One sign reportedly posted inside the State Department read, “Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM, Remember the oath you vowed to uphold.” And another: “Here sat America’s experts on democracy, human rights … and more. You’ve just released them and hundreds of their colleagues into the wild.”
Signs posted today inside the State Department read:
“Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM, Remember the oath you vowed to uphold”
“Here sat America’s experts on democracy, human rights…and more. You’ve just released them and hundreds of their colleagues into the wild” pic.twitter.com/9sOSRfaeGF
— Tyler McBrien (@TylerMcBrien) July 11, 2025
Despite the hysteria, however, the actual numbers tell an entirely different story than that peddled by critics.
Since 2007, the State Department’s bureaucratic waistline has ballooned. That year, the department employed 57,340 people. By 2015, the number had increased to 72,895. In 2024? 80,214.
Looking at State Department documents, it appears the department went from 57,340 total employees in 2007 to 72,895 in 2015 to 80,214 in 2024. So it grew by nearly 23,000 employees before the ‘devastating’ cut of 1,300. pic.twitter.com/KCIUlE6nVN
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 12, 2025
So is over 1,300 people, or roughly 1.6% of all State Department staffers, devastating enough to harm America’s national security and our standing in the world?
You know the answer.
