Trump’s transition team has reportedly asked three senior career diplomats to step down from their roles, according to Reuters. Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz, the career diplomats who were allegedly asked to leave their roles, oversee the State Department’s workforce and internal coordination. This request could signal the Trump team’s desire to implement major changes within the department.
‘There’s a little bit of a concern that this might be setting the stage for something worse,’ a U.S. official familiar with the matter told Reuters.
All three of the career diplomats named in the report have worked under Democratic and Republican administrations, Reuters noted. Unlike political appointees, diplomats do not typically resign when a president leaves office.
Throughout his political career, Trump has gone after the ‘deep state,’ and this move could be seen as part of his efforts to fundamentally change the government on a bureaucratic level.
‘It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek officials who share President Trump’s vision for putting our nation and America’s working men and women first. We have a lot of failures to fix and that requires a committed team focused on the same goals,’ Trump’s team told Reuters in response to a request for comment.
This report comes as the world sees itself in the middle of a chaotic period with wars between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas raging.
While there are those who are skeptical at best when it comes to Trump’s foreign policy plans, others see shifts on the world stage as early signs of success.
One of the hallmark foreign policy moves of Trump’s first term was the Abraham Accords, which saw peace break out in the Middle East. After more than a year of fighting, Israel and Hamas have come close to ending their war. In fact, Biden White House national security communications adviser John Kirby recognized Trump’s incoming Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff as a key figure in brokering the potential deal.
‘The president made it clear to us on the national security team that we needed to make sure that the Trump team, in particular Mr. Witkoff, were part and parcel and fully invested in everything we were doing because they were going to own it when we left office,’ Kirby told ‘Your World’ on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.