National security

GOP national security elites agonize: Should I work for Trump?

The fallout from Trump's election is obviously reverberating well beyond Republicans. Democrats who had been hoping for political appointments in a Clinton administration are reeling from her loss and resetting their plans. Many in the civil service, too, are wondering whether they want to stay and work in a Trump administration.

"I’ve already started day drinking," said one State Department official on Wednesday afternoon. He described the scene at Foggy Bottom as funereal, and said he'd heard a lot of talk of people putting in their retirement papers.

"I think there’s going to be a lot of talk as people go through their stages of grief about it, but at the end of the day you have real life. You have mortgages and car payments and kids," the State official said. "There's also a sense of duty and service."