Donald Trump has been in office for a little over a month now and Americans are starting to get a sense of what the next four years are going to look like. One aspect of this presidency that Americans might be noticing is that the federal workforce seems to be shrinking. It feels as though people are being laid off left and right, and every day there is a new story about large groups of federal employees losing their jobs. Some Americans are concerned about the firings and they believe that these actions are unfair and that these employees are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of the federal government. Other Americans see these mass firings as a huge success, and they believe that the reduction in government size will save them money. Still, others aren’t sure exactly what is going on and why.
To start off, it is important to establish that these terminations did not come out of the blue and shouldn’t come as a surprise to Americans. These layoffs were planned and fulfill campaign promises. Trump campaigned on a variety of issues including immigration, the economy, and culture war issues, but he also campaigned on government efficiency. During his campaign, Trump promised to set up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) specifically to cut spending and to save money. Trump followed through on this promise when he established DOGE by executive order on Jan. 20th. Elon Musk, who is heavily involved in DOGE, stated that DOGE would be able to slash $2 trillion in government spending which would be about 30% of the government’s total spending. All of this to say, cutting spending and saving money was a major part of the Trump campaign and the recent firings of federal employees ties into that campaign promise.
Saving money is obviously appealing to most people, and it is difficult to oppose measures that would allow one to keep more of their own money. Americans voted for Trump, in part, because of his promises to save Americans money and crack down on government spending. One way that the Trump team is attempting to cut spending is by firing federal workers. The salaries of 3 million federal employees, who make $106,000 on average, are paid in part by tax dollars, and it currently costs around $260 billion to pay the salaries of federal employees. Trump and his team have argued that many of these employees are unnecessary and that there is no need for a federal government of this size. The United States has been in a deficit in all but 4 years since 1970, meaning that the government’s expenses exceed its revenue. Trump and members of his team see firing federal employees as a way to decrease the deficit.
Trump began by implementing a federal hiring freeze through executive order. This order prevented positions open as of Jan. 20th from being filled and also prevented the creation of any new position within the federal government. This order included exemptions for positions related to immigration enforcement, public safety, or national security. The freeze is intended to last for 90 days after its implementation.
Before the Trump office started to fire people, they first attempted to shrink the government through buyouts. The administration offered seven months of pay and benefits to employees who voluntarily resigned from their positions before Feb. 6, about 75,000 people accepted this offer.
On Feb. 4th, the Trump administration attempted to put nearly all employees at the United States Agency for International Development on administrative leave, but they were blocked due to orders from a judge. These orders were later reversed, and it looks like about 4,200 employees will be put on leave and 1,600 will be fired. The Trump administration has expressed a desire to fire nearly 90% of USAID employees, so there will likely be more layoffs from this agency.
On February 13th thousands of probationary employees were fired from several departments including the Department of Education, U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and several others. Probationary employees are employees that have recently been hired on a probationary basis during which their performance is heavily scrutinized. Probationary employees do not have as many rights as permanent employees, they can be let go with no notice, are not entitled to severance and are sometimes unable to appeal their termination. If an administration was looking to fire employees in order to save money, it makes sense that they would first target probationary employees. Not only does the government not have to pay their salaries anymore, but they also do not have to pay a lot to fire these individuals.
Following this termination of probationary employees, multiple courts have gone back and forth over the legality of the firings. A Judge in California deemed the firings to be illegal and put a halt them but did not order that those already terminated be rehired. There have also been lawsuits launched from several federal employee unions disputing terminations. It seems, however, that there is no consensus on whether these large cuts in the federal workplace are legal.
Here are a list of the firings of probationary employees as of Feb. 5th from Statistica
- Internal Revenue Service: 6,700
- Department of Health and Human Services: 5,200
- U.S. Forest Service: 3,400
- Department of the Interior: 2,300
- Department of Energy: 2,000
- Department of Veterans Affairs: 1,000
- Small Business Administration: 720
- Department of Homeland Security: 400
This totals to around 21,00 people being fired from their positions in the federal government, though it is unclear whether all these terminations went through or not. This amounts to a cut of nearly 1% of all government employees.
As stated above there are mixed reactions to these terminations; some are in full support while others are horrified. The real question to be asking right now is whether these cuts will impact the effectiveness of the U.S. government or if operations will continue as usual–If the government can be effective and efficient with less employees and fewer expenses, then these firings will have been justified, but if government activity begins to slow down and grinds to a halt, it will be clear that the Trump administration may have gone too far. For now, it seems as though the president of the United States is back to saying “You’re Fired” and has no intention of stopping.