Six senior officials in charge of management at the State Department have departed their posts under the new administration of President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reports, citing four unnamed State officials. On Wednesday afternoon, nine-year State veteran Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary for management, resigned suddenly, joined by Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond, and Office of Foreign Missions Director Gentry O. Smith.

Additionally, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr and Bureau of Overseas Building Operations Director Lydia Muniz retired from their posts on Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration. All five officials worked under Kennedy to manage department logistics as well as State posts overseas; the Post further notes that "several senior foreign service officers" in regional State outposts have either left or resigned their positions since the election.

"It's the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember," David Wade, the State Department's former chief of staff under John Kerry, told the Post. "That's incredibly difficult to replicate." Kennedy had reportedly planned to try to stay on in his job under incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and his resignation Wednesday was apparently unexpected.

Reporters have noted that many of the senior officials had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents. "In the context of a president [Trump] who railed against the U.S. foreign policy establishment during his campaign and a secretary of state [Tillerson] with no government experience, the vacancies are ... concerning," the Post wrote. Read more about the mass departures from the State Department at The Washington Post. Kimberly Alters</s>Senior US diplomats have resigned during Donald Trump's first week on the job, creating more high-level openings that the new president must fill.

State Department under secretary for management Patrick Kennedy, a career foreign service officer, planned to retire effective from Friday, the department said.

He was joined by two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond, who resigned on Wednesday, and Gentry Smith, who directs the Office of Foreign Missions, is also departing.

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The four join a growing list of long-serving diplomats declining to stay on into the Trump administration.

That list includes Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Gregory Starr, assistant secretary for diplomatic security.

Mr Starr retired on Mr Trump's inauguration day.

Although none of the officials has linked their departure explicitly to Mr Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration, given the unorthodox positions he has taken on many foreign policy issues.

Mr Trump has yet to fill many top diplomatic jobs, including the deputy secretary roles.

His nominee to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next week.

Mr Kennedy, relied upon by both Democrats and Republicans, was tapped for the under secretary post in 2007 by George Bush and stayed on throughout Barack Obama's term.

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His position oversees the department's budget and finances, security, global facilities and consular services.

Mr Kennedy, a diplomat since 1973, was criticised for the department's insufficient security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed in 2012.

In testy congressional hearings he defended then secretary of state Hillary Clinton's handling of the situation and insisted there was no "stand down" order to the US military during the attack,

Bureau records also showed Mr Kennedy asked for the FBI's help in 2015 to change the classification level of an email from Mrs Clinton's private server.

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The FBI ultimately rejected the request.</s>WASHINGTON -- A number of senior career diplomats are leaving the State Department after the Trump administration accepted their resignations from presidentially appointed positions.

The State Department said Thursday that several senior management officials as well as a top arms control diplomat would be leaving. All had submitted their resignations prior to Donald Trump's January 20 inauguration as is required of officials holding jobs appointed by the president. They were not required to leave the foreign service but chose to retire or resign for personal reasons, the department said.

They were not required to leave the State Department but chose to either retire or resign from the foreign service for their own reasons, the officials said.

While none of the officials has linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration given the unorthodox positions he's taken on many foreign policy issues.

Turnover among senior leadership during presidential transitions is not unusual, although the career diplomats who are leaving the foreign service entirely had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

More resignations are expected to be accepted as Trump's diplomatic team takes shape, according to the officials who were not authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The now vacant jobs will be filled by subordinates on an acting basis until their full-time appointments are named, the officials said.

Among those whose resignations have been accepted are Thomas Countryman, who had been serving as the acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Others include Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy; two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond; and Gentry Smith, who directs the Office of Foreign Missions. They had been willing to remain at their posts but had no expectation of staying, according to several State Department officials familiar with the resignations.

Other senior career diplomats to have left the State Department since Trump's election include Victoria Nuland, the former assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Gregory Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security. Starr retired on Inauguration Day as did Lydia Muniz, a non-career political appointee who had run Overseas Building Operations.

Trump has yet to fill many top diplomatic jobs, including the deputy secretary roles. His nominee to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next week.

Kennedy was relied upon by both Democrats and Republicans. He was tapped for the undersecretary post in 2007 by President George W. Bush and stayed on throughout President Barack Obama's term. His position oversees the department's budget and finances, security, global facilities and consular services.

Kennedy, a diplomat since 1973, was criticized for the department's insufficient security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed in 2012. In testy congressional hearings, Kennedy defended then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the situation and insisted there was no "stand down" order to the U.S. military during the attack.

Bureau records also showed Kennedy asked for the FBI's help in 2015 to change the classification level of an email from Clinton's private server. The FBI ultimately rejected the request.</s>WASHINGTON — A handful of senior U.S. diplomats are resigning their posts during President Donald Trump's first week on the job, creating more high-level openings that the new president must fill.

State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, a career foreign service officer, planned to retire effective Friday, the State Department said. He was joined by two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond, who both resigned Wednesday. Gentry Smith, who directs the Office of Foreign Missions, was also departing.

The four join a growing list of long-serving diplomats declining to stay on into the Trump administration. That list includes Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Gregory Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security. Starr retired on Inauguration Day.

Although none of the officials has linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration, given the unorthodox positions he's taken on many foreign policy issues.

Trump has yet to fill many top diplomatic jobs, including the deputy secretary roles. His nominee to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next week.

Kennedy, relied upon by both Democrats and Republicans, was tapped for the undersecretary post in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

Kennedy stayed on throughout President Barack Obama's term. His position oversees the department's budget and finances, security, global facilities and consular services.

Kennedy, a diplomat since 1973, was criticized for the department's insufficient security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed in 2012. In testy congressional hearings,

Kennedy defended then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the situation and insisted there was no "stand down" order to the U.S. military during the attack,

Bureau records also showed Kennedy asked for the FBI's help in 2015 to change the classification level of an email from Clinton's private server. The FBI ultimately rejected the request.</s>How many workers does the federal government need? There’s probably not a bigger political football out there, and it’s one getting a pretty heavy kicking these days, with Donald Trump freezing, among other things, new hiring. While Trump is hardly the first President to freeze the federal workforce, news from the State Department offers a worrying trend that senior officials may have decided they were better off elsewhere. However, the above live CNN report indicates the Trump administration’s claim that the entire senior management team was told to submit their resignations.

The story’s rather muddled at this point, but the Washington Post first reported that the State Department’s entire senior staff quit. The WaPo described this as part of an ongoing Washington standard wherein federal employees resign if they feel they can’t support the policies of the President. Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond, and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith are following several colleagues who retired on Inauguration Day out the door. Many of them had served under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.

With these resignations, effectively Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has no senior management to do his job. It’s not clear, however, how many of the resignations were protests and how many were forced:

Whether Kennedy left on his own volition or was pushed out by the incoming Trump team is a matter of dispute inside the department. Just days before he resigned, Kennedy was taking on more responsibility inside the department and working closely with the transition. His departure was a surprise to other State Department officials who were working with him.

As the Post notes, the fundamental issue is that managing the State Department is a complicated job at best. The department currently has 69,000 employees posted across the world performing various functions, from diplomacy to the work-a-day paperwork involved in representing the US and its interests in a foreign country. Losing senior management creates a gap in both organization and experience that Tillerson and Trump will need to quickly fill, and may have difficulty doing.</s>WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two senior administration officials said Thursday that the Trump administration told four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to “clean house” at Foggy Bottom.

Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Joyce Anne Barr, and Ambassador Gentry Smith and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.

All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.

The letters from the White House said that their resignations were accepted and they were thanked for their service.

The White House usually asks career officials in such positions to stay on for a few months until their successors are confirmed.

“Any implication that that these four people quit is wrong,” one senior State Department official said. “These people are loyal to the secretary, the President and to the State Department. There is just not any attempt here to dis the President. People are not quitting and running away in disgust. This is the White House cleaning house.”

Mark Toner, the State Department’s acting spokesman, said in a statement that “These positions are political appointments, and require the President to nominate and the Senate to confirm them in these roles. They are not career appointments but of limited term.”

He continued, “Of the officers whose resignations were accepted, some will continue in the Foreign Service in other positions, and others will retire by choice or because they have exceeded the time limits of their grade in service.”

Greg Starr, director of diplomatic security, also followed through on his planned resignation. He had come back from retirement after the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and promised to stay through the end of the Obama administration.

“This had been on course for over a year,” another official said. “He came out of retirement and promised to stay out (of) the administration. If Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders were elected, he would still be retiring.”

The firings leave a huge management hole at the State Department, with a combined 150 years of institutional experience among all of the named officials. The second official echoed that the move appeared to be an effort by the new administration to “clean house” among the State Department’s top leadership.

Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Europe, was also not asked to stay on.

“The department will not collapse,” the second official said. “Everyone has good deputies. It’s a huge institutional loss, but the department has excellent subordinates and the career people will step up. They will take up the responsibility.”

In her parting letter, Bond told her colleagues, “It has been an honor to serve with you as the Assistant Secretary for the past 17 months, and to have represented the United States as a Foreign Service officer for 40 years. What a privilege it has been.”</s>An entire level of senior management officials at the US State Department has quit rather than serve under President Trump.

The Independent reports four officials stood down yesterday as incoming secretary of state Rex Tillerson took the reins.

The four officials to quit were Patrick Kennedy, Under Secretary of State for Management, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions.

A number of other state officials have left since Donald Trump was inaugurated, and while none have explicitly linked their exits to Trump, its understood that many have privately expressed concerns.</s>Several State Department officials left their posts Wednesday, reports the New York Daily News.

At least four senior officials at the State Department resigned Wednesday, leaving the critical agency devoid of most of its management-level personnel ahead of the expected confirmation of Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson…

The departures are just the latest wave in an ongoing mass exit from the State Department following President Trump’s electoral victory in November…CNN reported that the foursome was fired — and didn’t resign — by the Trump administration as part of an effort, officials said, meant to “clean house.”

…Resignees included Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith and director of the Office of Foreign Missions. Additional diplomats have declined to stay on as President Trump assumed office, reportedly making the current slate of exits the largest in recent history at the department.

The announcement of state department departures coincided with a group of 12 senators including Bernie Sanders sending a letter lambasting Trump for promoting a “culture of fear among federal employees,” reports CBS News.</s>As it becomes increasingly likely that Rex Tillerson – Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State – will gain confirmation from the Senate, the State Department which Tillerson looks set to take over is witnessing a purge of its higher ranks.

During a visit by Tillerson to the State Department building in Foggy Botton the four most senior members of its management team all announced their resignations after being asked to quit (earlier claims that they resigned of their own accord are apparently untrue).

The four senior officials who have gone are Patrick Kennedy, Under Secretary of State for Management, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions.

Another senior State Department official who is going is Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Nuland is a rigid neocon, notorious for her role in the Maidan coup, during which she posed handing out cookies to anti-government protesters in Kiev’s Maidan Square, and who – to the US government’s intense embarrassment – was caught (probably by Russian intelligence) speaking on the telephone with US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt picking Arseniy Yatsenyuk for the post of Ukraine’s Prime Minister. The wife of the arch-neocon intellectual Robert Kagan – who supported Hillary Clinton in the US election – and a former protege of George W. Bush’s Vice-President Dick Cheney, Nuland’s departure will be welcomed not just in Moscow but in other European capitals where she has become notorious for her abrasiveness.

Whilst Nuland’s removal from the State Department was essential if Trump and Tillerson are truly serious about carrying out their declared policy of seeking detente with Russia, the fact that so many other senior officials are being caught up in what is increasingly looking like a comprehensive clearing out of the State Department’s top leadership is a sign that Trump and Tillerson are determined to get a proper grip on the US’s sprawling foreign policy bureaucracy.

It will not have escaped their notice that Obama’s hapless Secretary of State – John Kerry – faced active sabotage from some of his officials, 51 of whom last June went so far as to sign a memorandum openly disagreeing with Kerry’s policy of talking about Syria with Russia, which they then promptly leaked to The New York Times.

The New York Times agreed not to publish the names of these officials as a condition for reporting the leak. It would be interesting to know whether any of them are amongst those now being forced to resign.

A key difference between Trump and Tillerson and the previous team of Obama, Hillary Clinton and Kelly is that as businessmen and CEOs both Trump and Tillerson are experienced managers of large organisations. This is something that Obama, Kerry and Hillary Clinton – all lawyers – never were.

As experienced managers Trump and Tillerson know the need to work with one’s own people in order to get the job done, and they are putting that knowledge into action.</s>Two senior administration officials said Thursday that the Trump administration told four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to “clean house” at Foggy Bottom.

Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Joyce Anne Barr and Michele Bond, and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.

 All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.

 Mexican president cancels meeting with Trump
Patrick F. Kennedy, Joyce Anne Barr, Michele Thoren Bond and Gentry O. Smith resign from the United States Department of State, after Victoria Nuland and Gregory B. Starr had declined to stay on in the Donald Trump administration.