State Department unveils patriotic ‘America First’ rebrand as part of sweeping makeover

FIRST ON FOX: The State Department is launching a new, “America First” rebranding initiative to consolidate all the logos for its offices under a singular one depicting the American flag — an effort that aligns with the agency’s massive overhaul plans. 

Whereas separate logos existed previously for offices including embassies, bureaus and programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development, the rebranding effort seeks to establish “consistent branding” across all these platforms to best reflect American contributions abroad, according to a State Department official. 

“The redesign is very simple, and that was to recenter and re-anchor the visual identity of American efforts overseas in the American flag,” Darren Beattie, undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State Department, told Fox News Digital Tuesday. 

Beattie said that inconsistent branding across State Department offices and programs has meant that sometimes U.S. efforts abroad aren’t as widely recognized, while other countries that do have uniformity in branding receive greater credit. 

“There’s some things you look at it, and you have no clue that’s associated with the United States government at all, and that’s obviously contrary to our purposes,” Beattie said. “If we’re contributing something great overseas, we want that positivity and that contribution to be immediately visually distinguished as something associated with the United States.”

The State Department rolled out guidance on the rebranding effort Wednesday — just a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that USAID would officially no longer continue to provide foreign assistance. 

STATE DEPARTMENT WILL ABSORB REMAINING USAID PROGRAMMING AS INDEPENDENT AGENCY IS DISMANTLED

Fox News Digital first reported in March that the State Department would absorb remaining functions from the previously independent organization, which delivered aid to impoverished countries and development assistance. 

Compliance with the rebranding effort across State Department offices and bureaus is slated for Oct. 1, according to Beattie. 

The effort seeks to visually complement the State Department’s reorganization already underway, which officials have said is the largest restructuring of the agency since the Cold War. 

Rubio unveiled plans in April to revamp the agency because the department was “bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission.”

Additionally, Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing foreign affairs in May that the restructuring aimed to “empower” regional bureaus and embassies who are responsible for spearheading the “best innovations.” 

RUBIO OVERHAULING ‘BLOATED’ STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM

“They are identifying problems and opportunities well in advance of some memo that works its way to me,” Rubio told lawmakers. “We want to get back to a situation or we want to get to a situation where we are empowering ideas and action at the embassy level and through our regional bureaus. Those are literally the front lines of American diplomacy. And so we have structured a State Department that can deliver on that.”

Fox News Digital first reported in May that the agency’s reorganization plans would involve cutting or consolidating more than 300 of the agency’s 700 offices and bureaus in an attempt to streamline operations. 

The reorganization involves axing roughly 3,400 State Department personnel, amounting to approximately 15% to 20% of the agency’s domestic headcount, State Department officials previously told Fox News Digital.