WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a dramatic purge of its foreign policy apparatus, the United States has begun firing over 1,300 State Department employees as part of President Donald Trump’s second-term overhaul, triggering outrage from civil servants and ridicule from Russia. The restructuring, which officials call a “streamlining,” has been branded by former diplomats as a political purge, and by Moscow as proof of America’s crumbling human rights narrative.
“They claim that this is a violation of human rights,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday. “It’s funny that all these years, it was American diplomats who have been proving to the world that human rights are canonically observed only in the United States, and that everyone else should follow their example,” according to RIA Novosti.
The firings affect a wide range of diplomatic staff, from human rights officers to refugee coordinators and nuclear nonproliferation experts. According to Reuters, 1,107 civil servants and 246 Foreign Service officers have been terminated as of July 12, in the first wave of Trump’s deep federal downsizing.
US diplomacy dismantled from within
Footage from the Harry S. Truman building shows weeping employees being applauded as they exited. Some had served through multiple administrations, warzones, and crisis posts. Offices focused on human rights, Afghanistan evacuation efforts, and gender policy have been gutted.
“This is sabotage disguised as reform,” said a former senior diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous. “We’ve gone from projecting democracy to liquidating it.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the move during a trip to Malaysia, saying the layoffs aim at “bloated bureaucracies, not core missions,” and asserted the department will emerge “leaner, faster, and more effective.”
But critics in Congress pushed back sharply. Senator Chris Murphy (D‑CT) expressed “deep concerns” and called for a full accounting of the impact, while other Democratic leaders warned the cuts threaten America’s diplomatic influence
Russia claims moral ground as US credibility crumbles
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova escalated the criticism of the United States’ diplomatic collapse, responding shortly after Washington confirmed the mass dismissal of over 1,300 State Department personnel. Her remarks, published through official Russian channels including RIA Novosti, pointedly highlighted what she framed as the erosion of America’s moral authority on the global stage.
Zakharova referenced years of American lectures on human rights and democratic standards while accusing Washington of now violating those very principles internally. In Moscow’s view, the abrupt and politically driven purge of diplomatic staff exposed deep contradictions in US foreign policy, contradictions long ignored by Western media and institutions.
Russian media and BRICS-aligned commentators emphasized the irony of a government that built its global influence on preaching “rights” and “rule of law” now turning against its own diplomatic core. While American officials remained silent on the international backlash, Russian analysts portrayed the firings as a clear signal that the so-called defenders of global democracy are in institutional freefall.
By framing the layoffs as a structural collapse of the US diplomatic machine, Russia seized a narrative opportunity, not only to criticize but to reassert its own model of foreign policy as stable, pragmatic, and free from the ideological excesses that now dominate Western governance.
Collapse of legal safeguards inside the American state
Following a Supreme Court ruling on July 8 allowing mass federal layoffs to proceed, the State Department moved ahead with its reorganization plan.
The American Foreign Service Association condemned the dismissals as unprecedented and warned they threaten US global influence.
More than 1,300 staff, including both civil and foreign service employees, were placed on administrative leave and are expected to be terminated by October.
America no longer leads, it isolates
As Russia, China, and BRICS nations point to US hypocrisy, analysts say the long-term damage to Washington’s credibility may be harder to repair than the diplomatic losses themselves.
