Blinken bids farewell with pep talk to diplomats facing uncertain future under Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken bade farewell to the State Department on Friday, urging career staffers to carry on in their mission to advance U.S. foreign policy amid uncertainty about how the incoming Trump administration will handle relationships and rivalries abroad or how it will treat career American diplomats.

In a final address to employees, Blinken paid tribute to their work over the past four years despite multiple challenges, ranging from Afghanistan and Ukraine to the Middle East.

“Without you in the picture, this world, our country would look so much different,” Blinken told a cheering crowd of several hundred staffers gathered at the department’s main Washington entrance, decorated with the flags of all countries with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations.

“With you in the picture, both are so much better,” he said. “You’re working every day to make things just a little bit better, a little bit more peaceful, a little bit more full of hope, of opportunity. That’s your mission, and you do it so well.”

President-elect Donald Trump has been publicly skeptical of the State Department and its traditional role in crafting administration foreign policy.

Trump once referred to the agency as the “Deep State Department,” and he and his associates have made no secret of their desire to purge career officials who do not show sufficient loyalty to the president. His choice to be Blinken’s successor, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has said he respects the foreign service, but he has not yet detailed any plans for how the department will be managed.

Blinken called for staffers to remain resilient.

“This is a time of transition, and when we talk about transition, sometimes we talk about passing the baton. That’s what I’ll be doing,” he said. “But that’s not what most of you will be doing. Most of you come Monday, you will keep running,and what gives me more confidence than anything else is to know that that’s exactly what you’ll do.”

He called them “the custodians of the power and the promise of American diplomacy” and finished his brief remarks with the exhortation to “carry on.”

Matthew Lee, The Associated Press