1,350 FIRED in One Night—Did Trump Just Shatter U.S. Diplomacy?

Washington, D.C. — July 11, 2025

In a sweeping move that left corridors of Foggy Bottom echoing with stunned silence, more than 1,350 U.S.-based State Department employees were fired overnight, marking the largest diplomatic purge in modern American history. President Trump’s administration called it a “recalibration”—critics call it a gutting of America’s foreign policy engine.

“Our mission has been hijacked by ideology,” said one fired mid-level diplomat. “We were told our expertise was outdated. Apparently patriotism now requires silence.”

The firings, many reportedly delivered via mass email, targeted longtime civil servants, policy analysts, and regional specialists. Among them: experts on Middle Eastern affairs, veteran China observers, and Russia desk leads.

Insiders say the abrupt purge is part of Trump’s renewed “America First Diplomacy,” now rebranded as “Voice of the Nation”—an initiative aiming to install loyalty-driven diplomats who mirror Trump’s worldview. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the firings, claiming that “global strategy must begin with domestic alignment.”

But former ambassadors warn the fallout could cripple critical negotiations on Ukraine, Taiwan, and climate accords—not to mention upcoming peace talks in the Middle East.

Lawmakers across both parties responded with alarm. Senator Tammy Duckworth called the move “a diplomatic bloodbath.” Meanwhile, pro-Trump pundits hailed it as “a long overdue clean-up of bureaucratic dead weight.”

In a leaked internal memo, one undersecretary pleaded, “We are losing the soul of American diplomacy.”