Trump's State Department budget cuts alienating many

THE Trump administration is severely curtailing the soft power component of American diplomacy by cutting the State Department's budget by almost 30 per cent, and alienating large numbers of career diplomats with extreme measures, as the White House begins its policy of "deconstructing the administrative state".

Most worryingly, President Donald Trump has proposed a sharply reduced US$25.6 billion budget for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) last month.

It would lead to reduced funding for the State Department's key Educational and …