Supreme Court Greenlights Trump’s State Department Overhaul, Triggers Mass Layoffs and Bureaucratic Cleanup

The State Department is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades after the Supreme Court cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to implement a sweeping 15% workforce reduction.

Roughly 1,800 positions are set to be eliminated starting Friday, marking a bold move to cut bureaucratic deadweight and refocus the department on real results. The restructuring comes after the High Court upheld the administration’s authority to reshape federal agencies for efficiency and accountability — a ruling hailed by constitutionalists and fiscal conservatives.

CBS confirmed the layoffs will begin imminently, with staff instructed to report in person Friday to return all government property, including laptops, phones, and diplomatic passports.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the purpose behind the move: “We took a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”

Although the department had laid out the reorganization plan in April, it was delayed pending court review. Now, with legal barriers lifted, the Trump administration is executing its plan to downsize the bloated bureaucracy.

“We have to do what’s right for the mission and what’s right for the American people,” a department official told reporters.

Speaking to Fox News, department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed the Supreme Court’s decision cleared a critical path: “There has been a delay — not to our interests, but because of the courts… It’s been difficult when you know you need to get something done for the benefit of everyone.”

Bruce said in a public briefing Thursday that the reorganization reflects a deep commitment to restoring the department to its foundational mission: “results-driven democracy.”

She acknowledged the department had grown obsolete, weighed down by Cold War-era structures and outdated programs. “You have a size and people working on things that are not within the framework of the modern age or of what we want to accomplish,” she said.

Bruce didn’t shy away from crediting the President’s leadership: “Certainly the decision that the American people made last year — that Donald Trump’s vision about what the world should be in the context of how America can be great again — [means] when something is too large to operate, too bureaucratic to function, it has to change.”

Years of unchecked sprawl, Bruce explained, were not the fault of the rank-and-file, but of past administrations that ballooned the department into “irrelevance.”

“We must be able to contribute to a world that we’ve seen in the modern age can destroy everyone’s lives,” she said. “Our department, the State Department, can make the difference with diplomacy, and Donald Trump is the highlight of that.”

The restructuring is more than a cost-cutting exercise — it’s a philosophical realignment. “This is a statement about a structure that needs to adapt, that must be smaller in order for us to be relevant, but even more than relevant – effective, quick,” Bruce said.

She concluded with a clear message: “This is about making sure that the State Department is able to operate in a manner that makes it relevant and effective. That is what the American people want. It’s what all of us want.”