WASHINGTON: A State Department official, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in Donald Trump's administration, submitted her resignation Thursday citing concern over the president's handling of recent racial tensions, The Washington Post reported. Mary Elizabeth Taylor was unanimously confirmed as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in 2018 after working for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and in the White House.

Taylor, 30, was the first black woman and the youngest person ever to serve in the role, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's liaison to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

But Taylor said in her resignation letter that Trump's response to widespread protests over systemic racism and police brutality "cut sharply against my core values and convictions," according to the letter, obtained by the Post.