(AFP) – The US State Department is expected to propose an unprecedented dismantling of Washington’s diplomatic reach, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday, shuttering programs and embassies worldwide to slash the budget by almost 50 percent. The proposals, contained in an internal departmental memo said to be under serious discussion by senior officials, would eliminate almost all funding for international organizations, including the United Nations and NATO. Financial support for international peacekeeping would be curtailed, along with funding for educational and cultural exchanges like the Fulbright Program, one of the most prestigious US scholarships.
The plan comes with President Donald Trump pressing a broader assault on government spending and a scaling back of America’s leading role on the international stage. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce downplayed the reports, telling journalists, “there is no final plan, final budget, final dynamic.” “That is up to the White House and the president of the United States as they continue to work on their budget plan and what they will submit to Congress,” Bruce said Tuesday. She added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “reiterated our complete commitment to NATO, as has the president of the United States.”
The American Foreign Service Association called the proposed cuts “reckless and dangerous,” while former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul blasted a “giant gift to the Communist Party of China.” The memo says the State Department will request a $28.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2026, beginning October 1 — $26 billion less than the 2025 figure, according to The New York Times. Although it has little to say about humanitarian aid, programs tackling tropical disease, providing vaccines to children in developing nations, and promoting maternal and child health would go, the Times reported.
The remnants of USAID — the sprawling development agency already crippled and eyed for closure by Trump and Musk — is assumed by the memo’s authors to have been fully absorbed into the State Department, said The Washington Post. Only Congress — which the majority Republicans still need some Democratic votes to pass most laws — can authorize such cuts. But the proposals will likely loom large in lawmakers’ negotiations over the 2026 budget. Government departments were facing a deadline of this week to send the White House their plans for cuts, but the State Department has yet to make any public announcements.
It is not clear if Rubio has endorsed the April 10 memo, but he would need to sign off on any cuts before they could be considered by Congress. The document earmarks 10 embassies and 17 consulates for closure, including missions in Eritrea, Luxembourg, South Sudan, and Malta, according to politics outlet Punchbowl News. Five consulates earmarked for closure are in France, while two are in Germany, Punchbowl reported. The list also includes missions in Scotland and Italy.
In Canada, US consulates in Montreal and Halifax would be downsized to “provide ‘last-mile’ diplomacy with minimal local support,” the website reported, citing the document. US missions to international bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s children’s fund, UNICEF, would be merged with the diplomatic outposts in the city where they are located. Rubio, meanwhile, wrote on X Tuesday that the State Department had canceled a further 139 grants worth $214 million for “misguided programs,” citing an anti-hate speech project in Britain as one example.
© 2024 AFP
