By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — Changes by the Trump administration have left US diplomats demoralized and less able to do their jobs, according to a scathing new report by the union representing foreign service officers.

The report, based on a survey of foreign service members, found that a vast majority of respondents — 98% — said morale had declined since January, and a third were considering leaving the foreign service early.

Twenty-five percent of the foreign service has “resigned, retired, seen their agencies dismantled, or been removed from their posts” since January, the report said, and more are considering leaving.

The findings of the report from the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) underscore concerns voiced for months by career diplomats and foreign policy experts about the negative impact of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the State Department and foreign assistance programs.

Scores of diplomats have lost their jobs due to the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). More than 240 foreign service officers were given termination notices in July, to take effect later in the year, as part of the State Department’s drastic reorganization. The report is being released as the department moves forward with those terminations, which AFSA has said is in violation of the law.

“The U.S. Foreign Service is being systematically undermined by its own leadership,” AFSA President John Dinkelman warned in the report, which is set to be released on Wednesday afternoon. “The Foreign Service—the very institution tasked with navigating our global interests—is being dismantled in real time.”

More than 2,100 AFSA members responded to the survey, which was conducted between August and September of this year.

Eighty-six percent said policy changes made by the Trump administration “have negatively affected their ability to implement the foreign policy of the United States,” according to the forthcoming report, a copy of which was obtained by CNN. Just 1% of respondents reported any improvement, the report said.

Many survey respondents reported diplomatic work is now more difficult because of cuts in budgets and staff and “diminished credibility.”

Most said that “key projects and initiatives are being delayed or suspended” and that they “are managing significantly heavier workloads due to staffing losses.” Forty-six percent “report new obstacles in negotiating with foreign counterparts” due to the changes implemented by the administration.

Asked to respond to the report, a senior State Department official said there were 5,751 applicants to take the foreign service officer test this year, a significant increase over past years.

The official said career diplomats were “integral in informing and implementing policy” on things like the “response to Hurricane Melissa, our efforts to secure peace between Cambodia and Thailand, and our work in Iraq, Haiti, and in South America.”

Foreign policy experts and former diplomats had warned that the changes put in place by the Trump administration, including the sudden suspension and cancellation of US foreign assistance, would threaten the country’s credibility abroad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke highly of State Department staff when he arrived in the role, calling them “the greatest, the most effective, the most talented, the most experienced diplomatic corps in the history of the world.”

In remarks on his first day as secretary, he said he wanted the State Department to be “at the core of how we formulate foreign policy, because we’re going to have the best ideas of any agency, and because we’re going to execute it better and faster and more effectively than any other agency in our government.”

However, in the months since, many have felt the expertise of the career foreign service has been largely overlooked as President Donald Trump has mainly turned to a small team of business associates and personal allies to conduct foreign policy.

State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rubio “values candid insights from patriotic Americans who have chosen to serve their country.”

He said that the use of special envoys is not new, and “those complaining are either unable or unwilling to find a way to be productive or contribute.”

Many diplomats who spoke to CNN have expressed fears of reprisal. Morale has plummeted in the wake of the State Department’s reorganization, during which 246 foreign service officers and more than 1,000 civil service officers were given reduction-in-force notices.

Pigott said the administration’s reorganization of the State Department was meant “to ensure those on the front lines – the regional bureaus and the embassies – are in a position to impact policies.”

Foreign service officers who were given the notices were to be placed on administrative leave for 120 days before formally losing their jobs. But on the day that those terminations were supposed to be finalized, affected diplomats were told the State Department was extending administrative leave. This week, they received emails saying firings would be finalized on December 5.

AFSA said that this is illegal under the continuing resolution to fund the government, which says that “no federal funds may be used to initiate, carry out, implement, or otherwise notice a reduction in force to reduce the number of employees within any department, agency, or office of the federal government” while it is in effect.

A State Department spokesperson said the language in the continuing resolution doesn’t apply to these terminations “since the State Department’s lawful reduction in force (RIF) process was commenced and initiated well before the lapse in appropriations.”

“Legal opinions published by both OMB and DOJ confirm that outcome. The State Department will proceed with executing the RIF process as planned,” the spokesperson said. AFSA has said it will be pursuing legal action.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.