The Trump administration is considering a plan to drastically downsize the State Department, cutting its funding by about half and eliminating more than two dozen foreign embassies and consulates, CNN reports.
An internal State Department document made in response to the Office of Management and Budget and obtained by CNN recommends that the State Department close 10 embassies and 17 consulates mostly in Europe and Africa, including in the countries of Malta, Luxembourg, Lesotho, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
“Posts were evaluated based on feedback from regional bureaus and the interagency, consular workload, cost per [U.S. Direct Hire] billet, condition of facilities, and security ratings,” reads the memo, according to Punchbowl News, which also obtained a copy.
U.S. officials familiar with the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told USA Today that the Trump administration also plans to cut more than $30 billion from the department’s budget in the next fiscal year, in addition to reducing foreign aid by almost 75%.
According to a New York Times report, the process has been accelerated by the team led by Elon Musk, which has embedded itself in government agencies in the hunt for what it calls government waste.
“I would suggest that you check with the White House and the President of the US as they continue to work on their budget plan and what they submit to Congress,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “The kinds of numbers and what we tend to see is reporting that is early or wrong, based on leaked documents from somewhere unknown.”