Inside The New Group Remaking The Trump-Rubio State Department

A recently-created program known as the Ben Franklin Fellowship (BFF) has placed dozens of employees at President Donald Trump’s State Department, potentially paving the way to remake the bureaucracy at one of Washington’s most important institutions.

Founded in 2024, the BFF has quickly grown to include 67 fellows as of publication, with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau among them. The organization includes former and current members of the State Department and “foreign affairs practitioners who support traditional, Constitutional American values in international affairs,” according to its statement of purpose.

Membership is invitation-only and all members and fellows must believe that the BFF’s principles should “guide America’s role in international affairs.” Principles include American sovereignty, a strong national defense, serving the president and being accountable to Congress and the Constitution.

Senior Bureau Official John Armstrong, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Pierce, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services Stuart R. Wilson and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Resources Vlad Lipschutz appear on Consular Affairs’ “Leadership” page, where they make up half the team. All four can also be found on the BFF’s “Fellows” page.

Because an induction date into the BFF is not given — only the year — it is unclear whether Armstrong, Wilson and Lipschutz were fellows before their promotion. However, the Caller can confirm that all four were listed as fellows of the BFF by mid-April, before Pierce’s promotion, according to web archives.

The Caller found that while BFF fellow presence is not at the same level across the State Department, other higher-level officials can be found on the organization’s website. Examples include Thomas E. Lersten, the senior official in place of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment; Senior Bureau Official Spencer Chretien of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration; and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Patrick Harvey.

While fellows are described as the “public face” of the organization, according to BFF, members are not publicly listed — meaning there may be even more crossover between the State Department and BFF.

The old guard of the State Department has been resistant to the BFF movement, The Financial Times reported. One official said “their main — and primary — qualification is that they agree with Trump’s agenda.”

“State is eroding itself from the inside out,” another claimed. Others told Politico BFF would “politicize” the department. Among their complaints was that BFF members don’t believe in DEI.

“They’re going to try to paint what we’re doing, I think, in the least flattering light that they possibly can, for obvious reasons,” BFF co-founder and board member Simon Hankinson told the Daily Caller. “They want to try to separate the Trump administration from people who support it.”

Consular Affairs was involved several new actions taken under the direction of Trump’s State Department.

Armstrong was cited in court documents related to the revocation of foreign-born student Rumeysa Öztürk’s visa. Öztürk was among several foreign national students who expressed support for Hamas and were detained by ICE before later being released.

Consular Affairs also led the preparation of a report identifying countries for inclusion in Trump’s latest travel ban, according to The New York Times.

There is already a small pool of qualified candidates to pull from when filling State Department and similar government posts, Hankinson told the Caller. He added that the pool becomes even smaller when narrowed down to those willing to take orders from the current administration.

The US Department of State building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (Photo by ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)

BFF Chairman Phillip Linderman told the Caller that State Department career personnel compete internally and rotate between assignments. “In this process, past State leadership has usually selected senior careerists who reflect globalists and woke values. BFF members are not in that camp, and they would have been overlooked by past leadership, but they are all rank-qualified and experienced,” he wrote.

Linderman said Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s team was responsible for selecting “individuals according to the officials’ judgment and qualifications, plus their credibility to work towards administration policy goals.”

Linderman said the BFF’s contribution to the process is only in creating a place for the networking of  “like-minded career officials who adhere to BFF principles, which align in many ways with Secretary Rubio‘s approach to foreign affairs.”

“Washington is all about networks. It’s all about what we call quarter reputation. It’s all about that — mentors and patronage,” Hankinson said. “This is what happens in Washington, for good or ill, in political appointments.”

Consular Affairs and the State Department have not responded to requests for comment.