Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned senior State Department officials that unethical conduct will cost them their jobs regardless of their political connections, according to a report by Reuters citing four anonymous sources. The warning was delivered behind closed doors to a group that included many of the department's roughly two dozen assistant secretaries.
The meeting comes as the department absorbs the fallout from the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece in mid-October. Reports have alleged that Guilfoyle traded access for money, gifts and favors. She denies those reports. The State Department declined to comment on the meeting, and the sources cited by Reuters were not identified.
According to the sources, Rubio also told officials that major decisions require either his approval or that of Deputy Secretary Landau. The message signals a tightening of control over the department's senior ranks at a time when internal discipline has become a visible concern, and it places the authority to sign off on consequential choices in a narrow circle at the top of the building.
Three sources said Jeremy Lewin, the department's policy chief, has been pushed out. The reasons reported for his departure include working beyond his portfolio and what one account described as «freelancing.» None of the sources tied his exit to ethical misconduct. Lewin disputes that he was fired, saying he left for a job in the private sector. The gap between those accounts leaves the circumstances of his departure contested.
The department has also changed how political staff plan foreign travel. Overseas trips by political appointees now require approval from Rubio's office, a step that gives the secretary's team closer oversight of where officials go and what commitments they make abroad. Taken together with the meeting and the Lewin departure, the rule shows a pattern of centralized review that reaches into daily operations rather than only high-profile decisions.
The crackdown follows Republican losses in the midterm elections, which handed Democrats control of Congress. Democrats have said they plan to examine the foreign dealings of Trump administration aides when the new Congress convenes in January. The administration denies allegations of self-dealing, and those denials frame the political context in which the State Department is now enforcing stricter internal standards.
Rubio has not ruled out a run for the presidency in 2028. That possibility adds a political dimension to his management of the department, as he works to project discipline and control inside an institution that is now under heightened scrutiny from an incoming congressional majority.