Trump administration appoints junior officer to oversee US foreign service: Sources

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has appointed a national security lawyer who entered the foreign service just four years ago as the top official overseeing the State Department’s global workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter and an internal e-mail seen by Reuters.

The hiring of Mr Lew Olowski to run the department’s Global Talent Management Bureau comes as President Donald Trump shrinks the federal workforce and looks to revamp the US diplomatic corps to ensure a dedicated implementation of his “America First” policies. 

Mr Olowski served as a senior counsellor at the Department of Homeland Security under the first Trump administration. He was named the Senior Bureau Official at the Department’s Global Talent Management Bureau, officials said. 

Mr Olowski, who entered the foreign service in 2021, will temporarily fill a position traditionally occupied by veteran foreign service officers, including ambassadors, typically with decades of experience.

The move comes as Mr Trump is looking to revamp the US diplomatic corps to ensure a dedicated implementation of his America First policies. 

His appointment sent shockwaves across the State Department workforce and drew an objection from the American Foreign Service Association, which represents foreign service officers, saying it was “deeply concerning” to appoint Mr Olowski and compared the move to putting a junior military officer in charge of the Pentagon’s personnel system.

“Placing an untenured, entry-level officer who has only served one complete overseas tour into this critical role, even in an acting capacity, not only disregards that tradition but also sends a clear message about the value this administration places on experience and professional progression,” the association said in a statement. 

It was not immediately clear when the administration was planning to nominate a director-general for the foreign service, which is a Senate-confirmed position.

‘Moment of transition’

In an internal e-mail to some State Department staff, Mr Olowski’s predecessor Catherine Rodriguez, a former ambassador who had led the Global Talent Management Bureau since the start of the Trump administration, described the past few months as a “profound moment of transition” and urged staff to welcome Mr Olowski, who will take up his new role starting next week.

At least one diplomat has threatened to resign over the appointment.

Mr Kent Longsdon, a career diplomat and a former ambassador to Moldova who served as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the bureau that Mr Olowski would be leading, said he would quit in protest in a meeting on April 3 at the State Department, two US officials familiar with the conversation said.

Mr Longsdon referred any queries to the State Department.

“We are not going to comment on internal personnel matters,” a State Department spokesperson said when asked about Mr Olowski’s appointment.

The State Department's nearly 70,000 global workforce is braced for potential job cuts and closures of US overseas missions as Mr Trump, with the help of billionaire Elon Musk, presses ahead with an effort to cut the federal workforce.

Mr Olowski is a Ben Franklin fellow, a network that includes many individuals who have served under Mr Trump including the current Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. 

In February, Trump issued an executive order directing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp the foreign service to ensure “faithful and effective implementation” of Mr Trump’s foreign policy agenda.

The order said failure to implement the president’s agenda is grounds for professional discipline, which may result in the termination of personnel.

During his campaign, he had repeatedly pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats that he deems disloyal.

Mr Trump, along with Mr Musk, has already fired thousands of federal workers and dismantled Washington's top aid agency US Agency for International Development, jeopardising the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and disrupting global humanitarian relief efforts. REUTERS