Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump has signed a total of 70 executive orders and laid off more than 200,000 federal workers. The layoffs are part of the Trump Administration’s effort to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Under the guidance of Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, cost-cutting measures have been put in place in the federal government. Among these measures is the elimination of excessive or unnecessary roles.
The layoffs come from numerous government agencies including, but not limited to: the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Defense.
Most terminated employees fall under the title of probationary employees — which refers to recent hires or long-serving employees who have recently changed agencies or roles.
The dismissals reach more than the average desk job. Workers from the National Park Service and wildland firefighters and support personnel have all been affected by this change. The Forest Service also fired an additional sum of 3,400 employees in the last week who provide support for wildfire operations.
This year, almost 4,000 wildfires have burned across the U.S. In 2024, the total number of wildfires surpassed 64,000, burning more than 8 million acres. Over 17,000 wildland firefighters were hired by federal agencies in seasonal roles last year.
In addition to those fired, many federal workers chose to accept buyouts. A buyout provides financial incentive to those employees who chose to resign voluntarily.
One email to federal employees asked them to justify their work. Musk’s response was that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. A handful of agencies chose to pushback. The FBI, State Department and Pentagon instructed employees to resist Musk’s order to explain what they accomplished in the past week.
“I’ll be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration’s priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the email,” shared Sean Keveney of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Keveney and other employees have questioned the move, pointing out that the agency’s work is protected by attorney-client privilege.
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Author: Anna Mower
Photo courtesy of Jim Watson
Editor: Tessa Cheshire
news@suunews.net