America’s Own Goal

On January 19, 2017, I exited the State Department with tears in my eyes, similar to how roughly 1,350 State Department employees exited last week. As an Obama administration political appointee, I had known this would be my last day, so my emotion wasn’t solely the result of my departure or the stinging shock surrounding the 2016 election. Rather, I was profoundly concerned about the direction of U.S. foreign policy under Donald Trump. I believed that “America First” meant that hard power, or flexing of our military might, would overtake our equally important diplomatic and development efforts, otherwise known as soft power. Together, the two – which work in concert – are known as “smart power,” and the diminishing of either is antithetical to American values and interests.

When it comes to Jewish values, one cannot pursue the goal of tikkun olam – healing the world – without soft power, which for decades has been operationalized by the development and humanitarian efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and diplomatic efforts of the Department of State. This may sound theoretical, but I can attest that the work of State and USAID has been essential for defending America’s national security, standing with our allies, including Israel, preventing costly and lengthy wars, and saving tens of millions of lives.

In the first week of Trump’s second term, he obliterated USAID. In the words of his former top advisor, Elon Musk, he “fed” this entire U.S. government agency “to the woodchipper” and fired its more than 10,000 government employees. These were experienced public servants who dedicated their careers to preventing the spread of deadly disease, promoting democracy and countering terrorism abroad, mitigating global crises and poverty, and providing American-procured food and medicine to those in need. The work of these now-unemployed public servants was the embodiment of Jewish values, including tikkun olam and pikuach nefesh, and thus fundamental to pursuing the core values of JDCA and the American Jewish community.

Six months later, with a green light from the Supreme Court to kneecap the State Department, Trump fired more than 1,350 people last week. Unlike my experience as a time-limited political appointee, these civil servants and Foreign Service Officers didn’t learn of their firing until mere hours before. Despite Secretary Rubio’s assertion that he’s eliminating 15% of his own workforce in a “deliberate” manner, the mass firings at State were cruel, arbitrary, and haphazard, targeting employees based solely on their temporary office assignments rather than experience.

In addition to the reckless mass firings at State, Trump is requesting that the State Department budget be cut by $26 billion, or 48%, which is devastating for the pursuit of its mission. This is on top of the $9 billion rescission package, which cuts funding for foreign assistance and public media (NPR and PBS), that passed Congress earlier today along partisan lines. Such a rescission package – or clawback of federal funding – is virtually unheard of in Washington.

Before today, Congress had not passed a rescission package in more than 30 years, because it is terrible governance. Why would the U.S. government want to give back billions that it had previously requested and Congress appropriated for worthy causes? The only explanation is the current administration’s obsession with undermining the goals of the previous administration, which means eroding decades of policy objectives pursued by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The erosion of the State Department and elimination of USAID are short-sighted “own goals” – Donald Trump’s self-inflicted wound to our national security. U.S. hard power cannot succeed without soft power, as Donald Trump’s first Secretary of Defense, General Jim Mattis, testified in 2013, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately. So I think it’s a cost-benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget.”

Clearly, Donald Trump didn’t listen to Gen. Mattis and so many other experienced national security experts and military officials, as he’s now ballooning the Pentagon and ICE budgets, while eliminating USAID and halving the budget for State. These drastic cuts hamper Trump’s ability to address his own stated national security priorities, including counterterrorism, stopping drug trafficking, energy diplomacy, and mitigating passport and visa fraud. Critical functions of the State Department, including those related to democracy promotion, climate change, global women’s issues, educational exchanges, refugees, and Afghan resettlement, have now been dramatically weakened or completely eliminated.

Admiral William H. McRaven, best known for leading the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, wrote about smart power and the State Department firings this week: “Our national security has never depended on military strength alone; rather, it relies on collaboration with a strong Foreign Service and diplomatic corps. I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with these dedicated public servants in some of the world’s most dangerous places, and I have seen firsthand how they advance our national interests.”

I have seen it firsthand, too, including in war zones, and am deeply concerned to see the more than 1,350 State employees forced to exit through the same State Department turnstile I did eight and a half years ago, with a single box of personal possessions in their hands and tears in their eyes. Their departure has degraded our ability to pursue our core values and national security interests.

Think there’s nothing you can do about it? Think again. The best way to reverse these decisions is to fire the elected officials rubber-stamping them, starting with the House Republicans who support Trump’s budget cuts, including the rescission vote earlier today. Join and support our efforts to do just that and elect those who share our values in the midterms, which are only 472 days away. Our work has already begun.

Shabbat Shalom,

Halie Soifer

CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America

P.S. We hope you will join us this Thursday, July 24, at 12:00 p.m. ET to hear from Rep. Sarah McBride, a trailblazing Democrat fighting Republican budget cuts.