By Jessica Donati and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department’s top official overseeing the agency’s management, appointed by President Donald Trump’s administration, is stepping down after less than three months, according to an internal email seen by Reuters on Thursday and a department spokesperson.
Tibor Nagy, who also served during the first Trump administration and has been performing the duties of the under secretary for management at the State Department since January 20, said in an email to staff that he was returning to retirement.
He had taken the job on an interim basis, U.S. officials say.
“Ambassador Nagy was honored to come out of retirement to help stand-up the second Trump administration, and it was always his plan to perform the duties of the Under Secretary for Management until more State Department leaders were confirmed,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email.
Nagy served as one of the top officials who oversaw the planned changes at the State Department as Trump and his advisor and billionaire Elon Musk embarked on an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government.
The experienced diplomat presided over a period of deep turmoil in the foreign service as it faces staffing cuts and the abrupt shuttering of the U.S. foreign aid agency.
“We have long needed to examine the fundamentals of how we conduct foreign policy,” Nagy wrote in the email, adding that there was more change to come to transform the department’s structure in a way that is more “suited for the 21st century.”
“While these changes can be unsettling, please continue to be receptive and supportive of these efforts,” he urged the workforce.
Some administration sources said the departure was expected.
José Cunningham, the assistant secretary of administration, will succeed Nagy, the internal email and the State Department spokesperson said.
Trump wants to ensure his bureaucracy is fully aligned with his “America First” agenda. In February, he issued an executive order to revamp the U.S. Foreign Service to ensure “faithful and effective” implementation of his foreign policy agenda.
During Trump’s campaign, he repeatedly pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats that he deemed disloyal.
Critics say the potential reduction in the U.S. diplomatic footprint, coupled with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development that provided billions of dollars worth of aid globally, risk undermining American leadership and leaving a vacuum for adversaries such as China and Russia to fill.
Trump and Musk say the U.S. government is too big and American taxpayer-funded aid has been spent in a wasteful and fraudulent way.
The chaotic closure of USAID has upended global aid deliveries and was recently reflected in termination notices rife with errors sent to foreign service officers worldwide.
(Reporting by Jessica Donati and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Rod Nickel)
