A new poll out today reveals the startling extent of demoralization among the U.S. diplomatic corps, with 98 percent reporting that workplace morale has fallen since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January. Eighty-six percent said it had become harder to carry out U.S. foreign policy during that time, with just 1 percent reporting an improvement.
The survey’s 2,100 respondents cited tighter budgets, greater workloads and career uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s moves to slash spending and reduce headcount. The findings are part of a report due to be released later today by the American Foreign Service Association, which warns that “America’s diplomatic capacity is being decimated from within.”
Even as they endure budget cuts and layoffs, the government’s career foreign service officers and civil servants have found their department largely sidelined by the administration’s unconventional, transactional brand of diplomacy. Trump has entrusted sensitive negotiations to family members and close associates like his son-in-law Jared Kushner and business partner Steve Witkoff, who has known Trump since the 1980s.
