Videos show emotional scenes as tearful State Department employees emerge to applause from colleagues after being abruptly fired.

The involuntary staff reductions include 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service employees, according to a notice sent to employees Friday morning.

The State Department began firing more than 1,350 U.S.-based employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine U.S. ability to defend and promote U.S. interests abroad.

Senior State Department officials described the changes as "the most complicated reorganization in government history," emphasizing that the cuts were largely made to eliminate Cold War-era redundancies as well as eliminating functions that were "no longer aligned with the president's foreign policy priorities."

The U.S. State Department fired more than 1,300 employees on Friday. The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the size of the federal government. The firings include the remaining employees working on global climate talks.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tour the Texas flood devastation and the State Department begins laying employees.

A rally is expected, with supporters “clapping out” departing State Department employees and protesting the layoffs at 4 p.m. Friday.

Administration officials say the plan will cut down on unwieldy bureaucracy and modernize the agency.

The State Department will lay off more than 1,300 people as part of a broad restructuring plan, Reuters is reporting. The layoffs will affect 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers, according to Reuters, which said it has seen an internal notice. The Associated Press is reporting the same number.

Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the diplomatic corps will undermine U.S. ability to defend and promote its interests abroad, critics say.