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When veterans came home from war — from Vietnam, from Iraq, from Afghanistan — many of us didn’t stop serving. We traded our uniforms for suits. Veterans joined the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Commerce Department, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and every agency flying the flag overseas. We became the quiet professionals who helped keep America competitive without firing a shot.
These weren’t just any public servants. They were veterans of Fallujah leading agricultural development in Ethiopia. Medics from Helmand who became global health experts during the Ebola and Covid crises. Civil affairs Marines stabilizing fragile governments through USAID. Army logisticians forming the backbone of disaster relief and global supply chain security. Former aviators orchestrating emergency evacuations and air diplomacy at U.S. embassies worldwide. They were the people who carried the U.S. war effort on their backs — and then helped build a more stable, peaceful world. Now they are being thrown out like garbage.
The veterans, diplomats, analysts, engineers, and foreign service officers who have kept our global edge intact are being purged from federal service under dubious Reduction in Force (RIF) orders by the Trump administration and replaced with something we’ve rarely seen before in upper echelons of government leadership — empty suits, yes men, podcasters, social media influencers, and political hacks. To make matters worse, the men leading this motley crew of the new American government are so incompetent, they can’t even manage a group chat correctly.
The State Department, USAID, and the broader foreign service ecosystem aren’t luxuries. They are how America shapes the world — through trade deals, tech standards, food security, education, and real relationships. These institutions help American companies get into foreign markets. They write the rules so U.S. innovation isn’t buried under authoritarian red tape. They connect us with allies, prevent wars, and stabilize entire regions.
You don’t just replace that experience. You lose it. And the next time there’s a humanitarian disaster, or a strategic opening, or a region at risk of falling into Chinese or Russian hands and economic influence, we won’t have the people who know what to do — and the administration couldn’t care less. As we throttle down our professionals, China is supercharging their nation-building teams worldwide.
If you think the Trump administration’s purge of the federal workforce is about saving taxpayer dollars, think again. These cuts will cost us far more in global influence, economic opportunity, and national security. Every veteran you fire from USAID or the State Department, or the Department of Veterans Affairs is a future conflict we didn’t prevent, a trade deal we didn’t win, a veteran who died by suicide and will never fight again, or a region we just handed over to our adversaries.
On the flip side, not a dime will be saved for American taxpayers. But that won’t stop MAGA world from hyping $5,000 rebate checks from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that will never come, promising future arrests of “government fraudsters” who don’t exist, or spreading lies about “lazy” government workers juggling four jobs. This is how empires fall — and we’re witnessing it firsthand.
For generations, veterans helped build America’s golden age. Today, the very people who benefited from that sacrifice are selling it off — for clicks, bitcoin pump-and-dump schemes, and tax breaks for billionaires.
This is how the American Century ends: not with a bang, but with a RIF.
