Update:
Despite some initial speculation that their ‘unexpected’ and ‘abrupt’ departures were possibly an expression of protest by employees who did not want to work for the State Department under President Trump, later reporting on Wednesday indicates the mass exodus was triggered, according to department officials, by the new administration “cleaning house” and telling the top-level managers their services were no longer needed.
“Any implication that that these four people quit is wrong,” one unnamed senior State Department official told CNN. “These people are loyal to the secretary, the President and to the State Department. There is just not any attempt here to dis the President. People are not quitting and running away in disgust. This is the White House cleaning house.”
On the record, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told the Washington Post, “These positions are political appointments, and require the president to nominate and the Senate to confirm them in these roles. They are not career appointments, but of limited term,” Toner said.