By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked more than a dozen senior career diplomats to step down from their roles, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said, as the incoming president moved quickly to shape his foreign policy and the diplomatic corps.
Among those stepping aside ahead of Trump’s Monday inauguration is the agency’s No. 3 official John Bass, who has been acting undersecretary for political affairs overseeing policy from Asia to Europe and the Middle East, sources said. His departure was first reported by the Washington Post.
One of the sources said all undersecretary and assistant secretary level officials – effectively the entire two layers of officials under the secretary of state – were asked to step down.
Reuters reported last week that the team overseeing the State Department’s transition to the new administration asked three other senior career diplomats who oversee the department’s workforce and internal coordination to resign from their posts.
Trump has pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats he deems disloyal – the staff changes appear to be in line with a broader effort reported to seize greater control of the federal government than any modern president.
Neither the State Department nor the Trump transition team responded to a request for comment.
Trump is likely to adopt a more muscular foreign policy and has vowed to bring peace between Ukraine and Russia, and give more support to Israel. He has also pushed for unorthodox policies such as trying to make Greenland part of the United States and pressing NATO allies for higher defense spending.
A diplomatic workforce that dutifully implements rather than pushes back will be key to achieving his goals, experts say.
Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, during his confirmation hearing last week said the State Department was “marginalized” and said that the agency’s staff should have a bigger role in setting and implementing foreign policy.
The officials leaving their roles remain as State Department officials but their future is uncertain. They have the option to retire but if they wish to stay in the foreign service, they would need to find new jobs within the department and be reassigned and that will be up to the new leadership.
CAREER OFFICIALS
While political appointees typically submit their resignations when a new president takes office, most career foreign service officers continue from one administration to the next, even as the incoming president has the right to install new officials to those positions.
Many of the diplomats who were asked to step down have worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations throughout the years.
“Closely monitoring reports that senior diplomats were asked to step down from leadership roles in advance of the inauguration,” Senator Jean Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an Jan. 19 X post.
“These non-partisan public servants have decades of experience serving under Republicans & Democrats & are key to US national security,” she added.
To have personnel aligned with Trump’s agenda, the transition team was installing scores of “senior bureau officials” to lead the department’s key bureaus, a development first reported by Fox News and confirmed to Reuters.
The transition team has also asked Lisa Kenna, who had served as executive secretariat under Mike Pompeo, Trump’s second secretary of state during his first term, to take over Bass’ duties and fill the role of undersecretary for political affairs, one of the sources said.
She also served throughout Biden’s tenure, first as the U.S. ambassador to Lima and most recently as the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department.
Tim Lenderking, Special Envoy for Yemen, was set to take over the Near East Affairs bureau and serve as the Department’s interim top official for the Middle East, one of the sources said.
Trump is expected to nominate Joel Rayburn, who had served at the State Department and the National Security Council during his first administration, as the assistant secretary for Near East affairs, a second source said.
Among those who are leaving were Geoffrey Pyatt, assistant secretary for the Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Bureau, whose diplomatic career spans over more than three decades. During the first Trump administration, he was Washington’s ambassador to Greece.
Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs and effectively the department’s top Asia diplomat, was also stepping down and retiring at the end of the month.
(Reporting by Humeyra PamukAdditional reporting by Simon Lewis and Jonathan LandayEditing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)
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