Secretary of State Marco Rubio has appointed a former member of his Senate staff who primarily has experience as a business consultant as the U.S. State Department's top official for Europe, according to an internal email sent on Friday seen by Reuters and two officials, APA reports.
The change in the most senior official who helps oversee U.S. ties with Europe at the State Department comes at a time when Washington is managing an increasingly tense relationship with the continent as President Donald Trump says he wants to take over Greenland, pressure allies on NATO spending and end Russia's war in Ukraine.
It is also the latest change as the Trump administration has proposed a major overhaul of the State Department aimed at ensuring the agency faithfully implements Trump's "America First" priorities.
Louis Bono, a senior foreign service officer who was appointed as senior bureau official in the department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs when Trump took office in January, wrote to staff on Friday that Brendan Hanrahan would be taking over the role.
"Brendan brings valuable experience from the private sector and the Senate, where he served on the secretary's staff, making him well poised to lead the bureau through the reorganization and to successfully advance the Secretary's agenda throughout Europe and beyond," Bono wrote in an email on Friday seen by Reuters.
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