WASHINGTON: The US State Department is expected to propose an unprecedented scaling back of Washington’s diplomatic reach, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday, shuttering programs and embassies worldwide to slash the budget by almost 50 percent.
The proposals, contained in an internal departmental memo said to be under serious discussion by senior officials, would eliminate almost all funding for international organizations such as the United Nations and NATO.
Financial support for international peacekeeping would be curtailed, along with funding for educational and cultural exchanges like the Fulbright Program, one of the most prestigious US scholarships.
The plan comes with President Donald Trump pressing a broader assault on government spending, and a scaling back of America’s leading role on the international stage.
Trump threatens to strip defiant Harvard of tax-exempt status
But the American Foreign Service Association called the proposed cuts “reckless and dangerous” while former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul decried a “giant gift to the Communist Party of China.”
The memo says the State Department will request a $28.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2026, beginning October 1 – $26 billion less than the 2025 figure, according to The New York Times.
Although it has little to say about humanitarian aid, programs tackling tropical disease, providing vaccines to children in developing nations and promoting maternal and child health would go, the Times reported.
USAID – the sprawling development agency eyed for closure by Trump and Musk – is assumed by the memo’s authors to have been fully absorbed into the State Department, said The Washington Post.
Only the Republican-controlled Congress – which needs Democratic votes to pass most laws – has the authority to sign off on the cuts.
But the proposals will likely loom large in lawmakers’ negotiations over the 2026 budget.
Government departments were facing a deadline of this week to send the White House their plans for cuts, but the State Department has yet to make any public announcements.
It is not clear if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has endorsed the April 10 memo, but he would need to sign off on any cuts before they could be considered by Congress.
The document earmarks 10 embassies and 17 consulates for closure, including missions in Eritrea, Luxembourg, South Sudan and Malta, according to politics outlet Punchbowl News.
Five consulates earmarked for closure are in France while two are in Germany, Punchbowl reported. The list also includes missions in Scotland and Italy.
In Canada, US consulates in Montreal and Halifax would be downsized to “provide ‘last-mile’ diplomacy with minimal local support,” the website reported, citing the document.
US missions to international bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s children’s fund, UNICEF, would be merged with the diplomatic outposts in the city where they are located.
AFP contacted the State Department for comment but there was no immediate response.
Comments