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Ex-CIA Director William Burns criticized Donald Trump for ousting career officials, warning it weakens US institutions and global standing.
US President Donald Trump
Former CIA director and veteran diplomat William Burns issued a scathing letter accusing the Trump administration of waging “a war on public service and expertise” through politically motivated purges of career officials.
In the letter, William Burns described watching the US State Department employees leave their posts “in tears” following staff reductions in July, calling the dismissals a campaign of “retribution” rather than genuine reform.
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“After years of hard jobs in hard places—defusing crises, tending alliances, opening markets, and helping Americans in distress—you deserved better,” he wrote.
‘Not Reform, But Retribution’
William Burns, who spent 35 years as a diplomat before leading the CIA from 2021 to 2025, said that under the guise of reform, crucial experts on technology and China policy had been forced out.
“If today’s process were truly about sensible reform, career officers- who typically rotate roles every few years- wouldn’t have been fired simply because their positions have fallen out of political favor,” he argued.
He cited the case of one diplomat given six hours to clear his office.
“When I was expelled from Russia,” the diplomat reportedly told him, “at least Putin gave me six days to leave.”
Warning Against Autocratic Tactics
William Burns likened the atmosphere inside US institutions to “McCarthy’s costly excesses” of the 1950s, saying the administration’s tactics resembled those of autocratic regimes that suppress dissent.
“No, this is not about reform. It is about retribution. It is about breaking people and breaking institutions by sowing fear and mistrust throughout our government,” he wrote.
He warned that punishing dissent damages national security by silencing alternative views. “That’s what autocrats do. They cow public servants into submission and in doing so, they create a closed system that is free of opposing views and inconvenient concerns.”
Strategic Self-Destruction
The former CIA chief also criticised deep budget cuts to agencies such as USAID, the State Department and Voice of America, calling them “a bigger strategic self-immolation” that undermines America’s global standing.
“If intelligence analysts at the CIA saw our rivals engage in this kind of great-power suicide, we would break out the bourbon. Instead, the sound we hear is of champagne glasses clinking in the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai,” he wrote.
William Burns argued that US strength had historically rested on a balance of “hard power and soft power”, citing Cold War diplomacy, Operation Desert Storm, and the bipartisan PEPFAR programme on HIV/AIDS as examples. By contrast, he said, the administration was “focused exclusively on the ‘self’ part of enlightened self-interest- at the expense of the ‘enlightened’ part.”
‘Abiding Importance Of Public Service’
Concluding his letter, William Burns urged younger generations of Americans to continue valuing public service despite current pressures.
“You swore an oath- not to a party or a president, but to the Constitution. To the people of the United States. To protect us. To defend us. To keep us safe,” he wrote.
While warning of a “generational setback” to US leadership if institutions continue to be hollowed out, William Burns expressed hope that future public servants would help rebuild.
“There is still a chance that the next generation could be present at the creation of a new era for America in the world… But there is, sadly, room for doubt about those chances,” he concluded.
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
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