The U.S. State Department cut about 15 percent of its Washington-based staff last week, blindsiding workers in the office tasked with fighting against human trafficking.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio carried through on his threat to eliminate foreign policy goals that don't align with MAGA values, including the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, known as the TIP Office, where staffers had expected to be absorbed into another office rather than decimated through layoffs, reported Mother Jones.
“Everyone was caught off guard,” according to a source familiar with the cuts.
The cuts came as President Donald Trump tries to fight off a MAGA rebellion over his handling of the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein, his longtime friend who took his own life six years ago while awaiting trial, and sources said only about 35 workers from the office remain in their jobs, but they will be reassigned and given a pay cut.
“The sheer number of cuts has really decimated the office,” the source said. “With that goes all of the expertise and connections and understanding. That takes years to build up. It’s not like you can just reassign a few people in the office and somehow it’s going to work.”
The Trump administration eliminated 1,353 positions at the State Department in the largest reduction in decades, essentially shuttering offices that promote democracy, fight violent extremism and support women's rights, in addition to fighting human trafficking.
“The world has changed," said a State Department spokesperson. "As we looked comprehensively across the Department, we saw that many of these offices had served an outdated purpose, had strayed from their original purpose, or were simply duplicative.”
The TIP Office had gained a reputation as a “human rights gadfly,” said a person familiar with the cuts, who was not surprised it was targeted.
“It was pushing back against other voices in the State Department,” that person said. “That maybe made some enemies.”