US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has moved to assert tighter control over the State Department, telling senior officials at a recent meeting that staff must remain within their designated roles and steer clear of conflicts of interest, four people familiar with the matter said.
Rubio delivered the message last week, ahead of the Republican Party's losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, at a time when leading party figures are seeking distance from an increasingly unpopular Trump administration. The gathering followed the high-profile resignation in mid-October of US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, after news reports raised concerns that she had sold access to Trump administration officials in exchange for money, gifts and favors. Guilfoyle has called the reports false and said in a social media post that she would defend her reputation.
The meeting included many of the roughly two dozen assistant secretaries of state. One of the people said Rubio warned that unethical behavior would lead to dismissal no matter how well-connected an official might be. He also complained that too many officials were making decisions or advancing policy agendas without coordination, and said significant decisions would require his approval or that of Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Details of the meeting have not been previously reported, and the State Department declined to comment.
Soon after the meeting, the department's policy chief, Jeremy Lewin, was forced out of his job in part because of concerns that he was handling matters outside his area without proper coordination, three of the people said, though the exact details remain unclear. None of those who spoke to Reuters suggested his departure involved ethical misconduct. Lewin entered government through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and helped dismantle the US Agency for International Development.
Rubio and other department leaders had grown frustrated with Lewin's "freelancing" and with him going against "certain directives from the Secretary," one person said. Lewin, appointed to the senior role just over two months ago, said on social media last month that he had stepped down to return to the private sector. A State Department official said: "It was mutually agreed it was time (for Lewin) to move on."
In a statement to Reuters, Lewin denied being fired and said his exit had been planned for weeks. "The suggestion that I was fired is false. As planned for weeks with the Secretary and his team, after staying longer than expected to finish key projects, I resigned my position prior to the midterms to assume a private sector role and plan my wedding," he said, adding: "It had nothing to do with any meeting or policy regarding the management of the department."
Rubio's frustrations also extended to excessive overseas travel by political staff, prompting a new requirement that his office approve all political travel, another person said. Shortly after Guilfoyle's October departure, Rubio sent a department-wide memo reminding diplomats to "avoid conflicts of interest," multiple media outlets reported. He later denied the memo was prompted by her exit, telling reporters he had intended to send it weeks earlier but that it was delayed for bureaucratic reasons.
The department has seen other recent departures. In October, US Special Representative for Global Partnerships Paolo Zampolli was fired after Politico reported on an email exchange in which Landau accused him of working outside his "lane" of cultural diplomacy and pursuing issues beyond his remit against orders. Reuters could not determine what those issues were. Zampolli later wrote on X/Twitter that special envoy appointments last one year by statute and that President Donald Trump had extended his by more than six months.
The personnel turbulence comes as Republicans look beyond Tuesday's midterms, which handed control of Congress to the Democrats. Vice President JD Vance and Republican Senator Ted Cruz posted post-mortems on X/Twitter that strategists read as early vision statements for the 2028 presidential race. Rubio has played down reports he is weighing a run without ruling one out, and his management of the State Department could become a campaign trail topic, particularly with Democrats vowing to scrutinize dealings between Trump aides and foreign officials once they take control of Congress in January.
