State Department

Peter Marocco and Marco Rubio start at State.

An unnamed USAID official receives an angry late-night phone call from Peter Marocco, the newly appointed Director of Foreign Assistance at the US State Department, accusing employees of trying to subvert the President’s executive order imposing a 90-day pause on all foreign aid.

The State Department issues a memo written by Peter Marocco and signed by Marco Rubio that not only puts a halt to future foreign aid but also insists on stop-work orders for ~6200 current grants and contracts at USAID.

Kenneth Jackson and Tarak Makecha start at State.

Edward Coristine and Luke Farritor detailed from GSA to State

Edward Coristine and Luke Farritor are both listed in the State Department’s directory as Senior Advisors within the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology.

In a meeting on foreign aid at OMB, Russell Vought stuns staffers by asking them to cut foreign aid to the greatest extent possible. When told that the cuts will lead to more people dying, he reportedly nonchalantly replied “you could say that about any of these cuts.” He also inquires about dismantling the USIP completely. When told it was independent and funded by Congress, he replied, “we’ll see what we can do.”

Ross Graber starts at State.

Ross Graber leaves role at State

Luke Farritor uses his admin access to lock out all government officials at multiple agencies from using grants.gov to issue new grants. Instead, all grants must now be sent to a new email address which will be reviewed by DOGE staffers before grants can be posted.

Peter Marocco leaves role as Director of Foreign Assistance at State (exits govt. service)

Jeremy Lewin starts as Acting Head of Foreign Assistance at State.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces plans for a major reorganization of the State Department that would eliminate 132 offices and terminate roughly 700 positions in DC. It also would reduce monitoring of war crimes and global conflicts.

DOGE staffers working with the Department of Commerce launch an informational site for the new proposed “Trump Card” gold visa, which would let people skip the lines for immigration visas by paying $5 million in fees. It is a single-page site with bold text and an email sign-up form for people who might be interested.

Jeremy Lewin signs off on an award to a Trump-backed aid group in Gaza, despite objections that the group failed to meet “minimum technical or budgetary standards” and waived mandatory counter-terrorism and fraud safeguards. The funding request was made by Kenneth Jackson, who ignored 58 objections raised by former USAID staff.

Jeremy Lewin overrides many objections by staffers reviewing the grant and rushes a grant of $30 million for the month of June to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation only five days after its funding request was submitted. The request was also handled by Kenneth Jackson and accumulated over 58 objections from USAID staffers that GHF failed both technical and financial requirements for aid recipients. GHF was hastily formed in February 2025 and has been faulted for forcing Palestinians to navigate crowded militarized zones to receive aid. This has resulted in multiple mass killings near GHF sites.

In an email to agency partners, the operators of grants.gov declare that the revised mechanism added in April that routed all Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) through a DOGE email address has been reversed. Instead, agencies are to return to using the tool like that did previously. This doesn’t necessarily mean that DOGE or political appointees will not be reviewing grants, but they have no longer locked other users out of the system.

Jeremy Lewin promoted to Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom at State

Jeremy Lewin is promoted to Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom in the State Department. This is the third highest rank in the agency and he is possibly the youngest person to ever hold it.

The State Department lays off more than 1300 people – many specializing in violent extremism, refugee resettlement and women’s rights – as part of a sweeping reorganization announced by Marco Rubio on April 22. The terminated staff will be placed on a 120-day administrative leave period before formally losing their jobs.

Months after the destruction of USAID and folding in some of its staff and responsibilities into the US Department of State, the Trump administration incinerates 500 million tons of emergency food biscuits worth $800,000 rather than sending it to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it could have fed 1.5 million children for a week because it was due to expire. Marco Rubio had promised the House Appropriations Committee that he would ensure food aid is distributed before expiration, but the government eliminated all aid to Afghanistan and refused to divert the food to other emergency crises. The cost of destroying the biscuits will be $130,000 making this nearly a $1 million dollar loss incurred by DOGE (not to mention lives that will be lost).

Congress passess a $9 billion recissions package that codifies DOGE cuts to foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, despite concerns from Democrats and two Senate Republicans that its cuts are purposefully vague and undermine Congress’ role in the budget process.

Threes after departing from DOGE and government service, Brad Smith is hired in a leadership position at the Department of State focused on global health initiatives.

Brad Smith starts at State.

In a call hosted by the US CIO, DOGE team lead Scott Langmack shares info on an AI tool named SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder developed by Christoper Sweet to review agency regulations for elimination. This is the same tool highlighted by DOGE in a presentation to the White House earlier in the month. Agency representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are on the call. Steve Davis also was on the call despite having left DOGE and asked if the tool could be open-sourced.

Acting on his own, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay blocking a lower court ruling that ordered the Trump administration to immediately pay out $4 billion in funds appropriated by Congress for foreign aid. This case will be taken up by the full Court, but there is the risk of the Trump administration practicing a “pocket recission” to eliminate the funding.

Acting in his new capacity as a global health advisor in the State Department, Brad Smith is reportedly pressuring African nations to sign memorandums of understanding which would grant the US access to their health data for the next 25 years in return for limited health aid from the US for the next five years. This is blasted by critics as extractive and an attempt by the US to bypass the World Health Organization’s normal role in monitoring for emerging pathogens.

The State Department posts photos showing that Donald Trump’s name has now been put on the US Institute of Peace facade, with the post acclaiming him as “the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”

A federal judge ruled that Elon Musk and senior State Department officials must sit for depositions about their roles in dismantling USAID. The judge cited the lack of documentation and no cooperation from other State Department staff as the reason there was “no alternative” to ordering the depositions.

Union officials and former staffers directly blamed the DOGE-driven Reduction in Force (RIF) and agency-wide reorganization last year for the State Department’s chaotic response in evacuating Americans trapped in the Middle East due to the war with Iran. The State Department denied the layoffs have had any effect on agency readiness.

As the Trump administration has struggled to find options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after it started hostilities against Iran, theree are reports that the State Department had eliminated all staff from the Bureau of Energy Resources who would have been able to predict the problems. Key staffers who maintained communications and diplomatic relationships with oil companies in the region were also let go. Furthermore, departments that would have researched and debated the effects of the Iran invasion in the Department of Energy, Treasury and State have been eliminated or were sidelined from the decision to go to war.