Widespread shock was felt in Washington final month when Lew Olowski, a lowly and little-known official, was appointed appearing director-general of the US overseas service — one of many state division’s most senior management posts.
A former nationwide safety lawyer, Olowski entered the overseas service simply 4 years in the past. In his new job, which often goes to a veteran diplomat, he’s, in impact, head of human assets at one of many greatest US authorities businesses.
It was like “putting a junior navy officer . . . in control of the Pentagon’s personnel system”, mentioned AFSA, the overseas service’s labour union.
However Olowski had one factor going for him: his membership of the Ben Franklin Fellowship (BFF), a conservative-leaning community of retired and serving diplomats that has made large inroads into the state division since President Donald Trump re-entered the White Home.
The BFF insists it’s non-partisan however makes no bones about its help for Trump’s America First agenda. In a weblog publish late final yr, Phil Linderman, its chair, mentioned the organisation’s function was to steer careerists on the state division “in direction of diplomacy that promotes American sovereignty, robust nationwide borders, truthful commerce practices, and scepticism about multilateralism”.
Linderman mentioned that “Trump-aligned and conservative FSOs [foreign service officers] and civil service employees are a definite minority in state, however they’re there”. Such officers are actually being promoted to high posts throughout the division.
The FT has recognized 11 BFF fellows who’ve assumed senior roles on the state division since Trump’s inauguration. Considered one of them is Christopher Landau, US ambassador to Mexico throughout Trump’s first time period, who was appointed deputy secretary of state in March.
However fellows have additionally been tapped for roles starting from appearing under-secretaries to deputy assistant secretaries and senior bureau officers — a outstanding success price for an organisation that was solely created final yr.
One official mentioned that for most of the BFF fellows now being promoted, “their principal — and first — qualification is that they agree with Trump’s agenda”.
“State is eroding itself from the within out,” the individual mentioned.
Some have even described the BFF because the “Maga deep state” — a designation Simon Hankinson, one of many fellowship’s founders, rejects.
“For us absolutely the final thing we’d ever wish to do can be to re-establish a deep state — that’s precisely what we’re in opposition to,” Hankinson, a former state division official who’s now a senior analysis fellow within the border safety and immigration centre on the Heritage Basis, advised the Monetary Occasions.
“And the expression Maga carries such baggage.”
He additionally dismissed options from critics of the BFF that it was made up of disgruntled white overseas service officers who felt victimised by the state division’s variety, equality, inclusion and accessibility insurance policies. One official referred to as it “the revenge of the underperforming white male”.
Hankinson mentioned it was clear that “girls have been promoted at a better price than males for the final 20 years” on the state division, however he insisted he didn’t wish to merely change one type of discrimination with one other.
“What we would like to see is a return to meritocracy and equality of alternative, versus equality of outcomes,” he mentioned.
However the fellowship’s founders are happy with its rising affect, saying they wish to emulate the success of the Federalist Society, the conservative community which equipped a lot of Trump’s judicial nominees throughout his first time period.
In his weblog publish Linderman mentioned the BFF’s organisers have been “following the playbook” of the Federalist Society.
“It’s undoubtedly a mannequin we’re allowing for,” mentioned Hankinson.
The personnel modifications at Foggy Backside, the Washington neighbourhood the place the state division is headquartered, have handed largely unnoticed by the broader public, with different developments on the company garnering a lot higher consideration.
These embody the shuttering of the US Company for Worldwide Growth, the ten,000-strong company with a $44bn finances that had change into an emblem of American delicate energy.
There has additionally been widespread dismay within the US overseas coverage institution on the state division’s collusion in Trump’s deportation programmes and the arrest of scholars accused of involvement in campus protests. Marco Rubio, secretary of state, has boasted of revoking 1000’s of pupil visas for the reason that change in authorities.
However the personnel modifications have additionally raised considerations. Gregory Meeks, the rating Democrat on the Home overseas affairs committee, has accused Rubio of “changing seasoned professionals with political loyalists, undermining one of many core rules of the Overseas Service”.
Probably the most obtrusive examples, he mentioned, was the appointment of Olowski, who as soon as labored as common counsel for Tucker Carlson’s The Every day Caller Information Basis, as senior bureau official of the Bureau of International Expertise Administration. He changed Marcia Bernicat, a seasoned diplomat who’s Black.
Rubio “appointed an entry-level officer with one abroad tour to guide International Expertise Administration, changing a two-time ambassador with a long time of service, who occurred to be an African American lady,” Meeks mentioned. “This isn’t about race — it’s about expertise, integrity, and primary {qualifications}.”
A state division spokesman mentioned: “There are lots of unimaginable FSOs right here on the state division who love their nation. They’ve had a front-row seat to the division’s decline. Secretary Rubio and his crew worth the insights, concepts, and management supplied by members of the Ben Franklin Fellowship . . . We count on each worker — BFF member or not — to return to work each single day to advance President Trump’s agenda.”
Trump has by no means hid his contempt for a “deep state” he claimed blocked him throughout his first time period in workplace, and has made clear his want to align the state division extra intently together with his Maga targets, together with by firing senior bureaucrats he deems disloyal.
In an announcement after his inauguration, the White Home ordered the state division’s “insurance policies, programmes, personnel and operations” to be introduced in step with an “American First overseas coverage, which places America and its pursuits first”.
That course of started even earlier than Trump started his second time period, together with his transition groups asking massive numbers of senior profession diplomats to step down from their roles.
The purge was thought-about uncommon: most political appointees resign when a brand new president takes workplace, however profession FSOs have a tendency to remain in publish from one administration to the subsequent.
These being shoved apart have been “non-partisan public servants” with “a long time of expertise serving Republicans and Democrats and are key to US nationwide safety”, mentioned Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator.
Among the political appointments have additionally raised eyebrows, even amongst Republicans. Darren Beattie, who was tapped as appearing under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs in February, labored as a speechwriter for Trump throughout his first time period, however left his publish in 2018 after it was reported that he had spoken at a convention attended by white nationalists. Final yr he declared on X that “competent white males have to be in cost if you need issues to work”.
Rubio defended Beattie’s appointment, saying he had been introduced on board “as a result of he’s strongly dedicated to ending the censorship packages that have been being operated out of the state division”.
US diplomats say privately that skilled profession FSOs are actually retiring or resigning in massive numbers, partially over considerations at political developments on the company.
“They’re haemorrhaging consultants at a price that’s simply unprecedented,” mentioned one.
“State is being taken over by harmful radicals.”
