(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Trump appointee Pete Marocco has abruptly left his position as the State Department’s head of foreign aid after he helped oversee the elimination of staff, programs and funding at USAID.
Marocco in the role reportedly clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the administration and Congress. However, the State Department has not commented on the reason for the departure.
Marocco’s exodus removes one of the staunchest Trump loyalists from the notoriously liberal-leaning State Department. According to online sleuths who helped the FBI hunt Jan. 6 protestors, Marocco even was part of the crowd that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Closely approaching the Streisand effect.
🚨This is their 2nd attempt to remove this image🚨
Someone is MAGA desperate that you don't see this image of a Trump appointee, Pete Marocco and Merritt Corrigan, before they crawl through a broken Capitol window.
I wonder if Pete… https://t.co/pw3qbgjoRh pic.twitter.com/4yL1wgzKbe
— Sandy 📛 (@K2theSky) November 14, 2024
An image shared by the self-described “Sedition Hunters” shows someone resembling Marocco entering a broken Capitol window with his wife, Merritt Corrigan, on that day. Corrigan was also appointed by Trump to USAID during his first administration.
Neither Marocco nor Corrigan were charged over the Jan. 6 protest, and they have not commented on the matter publicly.
Conservative pundit Laura Loomer accused Rubio of firing Marocco.
“Pete was doing an amazing job until he was abruptly FIRED on Friday under @marcorubio’s State Department,” Loomer said Sunday on Twitter/X.
“In addition to being appointed by Trump, Marocco is so HARD CORE, he was reportedly inside the US Capitol on J6 opposing the certification of the STOLEN 2020 ELECTION when so many other Republicans, including some of President @realDonaldTrump’s own staff betrayed him and threw him under the bus on J6 and in the days that followed.”
It’s quite deceptive to say Trump appointee Pete Marocco “abruptly left” the State Department.
Pete Marocco was tasked by President Trump with dismantling USAID, and we have since learned that USAID was being used as a SLUSH FUND for the Democrats so they could fund endless… https://t.co/kAwN98fTz3 pic.twitter.com/MJpO6Cx4TY
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 14, 2025
Marocco was replaced with Jeremy Lewin, an associate of the Department of Government Efficiency earlier appointed to help finish dismantling USAID.
Lewin’s appointment gives Elon Musk’s DOGE, which has worked with the Republican administration to make deep cuts to government programs and services, one of its highest formal roles in the federal government.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
