Posted on 06/04/2026 3:02:50 PM PDT by thegagline
Donald Trump's purge of the federal bureaucracy escalated Wednesday with an executive order making it easier to fire 8,000 federal workers.
The order reclassified the workers as at-will employees, meaning the government can now terminate them without offering a reason.
A rule finalized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) earlier this year established a new category of these workers, known as 'schedule policy/career.'
Trump's order Wednesday put those 8,000 workers, generally senior policymakers, into the new category.
'It's been a long-standing problem that it's almost impossible to fire a federal employee, even in cases of serious misconduct,' said James Sherk of the Domestic Policy Council at the public signing of the order. 'And that's a particular problem if you're in a senior policy-influencing role.'
The President lauded Sherk as a key architect of the order.
'What this [order] does is basically treat those employees like private sector workers,' Sherk added.
Previously, only around 4,000 federal employees could be hired and fired using the at-will procedures. Under the terms of Trump's order, that number triples to 12,000.
Not all of these job cuts have stuck - Musk later described his government-shrinking project as only 'a little bit successful,' and courts have frequently ordered the rehiring of fired employees - but Trump's job cuts have provoked sharp criticism.
A White House fact sheet on Wednesday's order maintained that any firings of federal workers would take place 'without respect to political affiliation.'
But outraged critics say the order enables Trump to further prioritize partisan, and even personal, allegiance in the federal workforce.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, issued a statement from its CEO, Max Stier, denigrating the order as a return to the 'spoils system.'
The spoils system was an 1800s political practice***
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NB: Neither Max Stier (who has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats) nor The Partnership for Public Service are nonpartisan as the reporter/propagandist suggests.
This was long expected. I’m certain most of those goverment workers were given the choice to leave their jobs only weeks after the 2024 election results. They could have left early , with full benefits. Those who hung on have probably used up all their vacation time. Won’t be getting a check for it.
Yes, every little counts.
There’s not been one big - we still have seen nobody from the Administration ask Congress to pass a bill formally abolishing the Department of Education.
.......... which was a 2024 campaign promise.(as of yet its a broken promise. It just is.)
Many, many littles. Many wonderful littles. The best littles.
Bigs? zero.
This is what they really fear: “But outraged critics say the order enables Trump to further prioritize partisan, and even personal, allegiance in the federal workforce.”
They fear losing decades of promoting leftists in gov’t will be lost and senior gov’t employees will actually care about results and not politics.
Getting rid of the corrupt USAID was quite big - it cut off the left’s federal funding using taxpayer dollars. Getting rid of the taxpayer subsidy for PBS/NPR was also big.
But will the courts block it?
With a bit of judge shopping, yes. At least at the District Court level.
This is the lifeblood of Prince George’s County.
Having worked for both the State and Federal Governments, I can attest that there is a LOT of dead wood to fell.
Maybe I was one of them back then? LOL!
I love how “the critics” are concerned about partisanship when that’s what THEY are all about. Such hypocrisy.
Abolishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - wiping it off of the face of the earth - would’ve been big. That was created by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which was not abolished. This 1967 law would need to be destroyed.
Sure the CPB dissolved, but they still have the law on their side for a resurrection.
And USAID sure, is probably the biggest of all examples. Problem is it was created by EO and eliminated by EO, so it can just as easily be created again by a new EO by the next president.
These are not as big as they seem, I am sad to say.
I am happy both happened. I try to remain sober that both were merely, sadly, temporary.
It’s a start.
That’s around a billion $.
It allows Trump’s cabinet members to prioritize efficiency and merit over just hanging on to folks just because they have been there a long time.
Sometimes it is the collective bureaucratic will of “career” bureaucrats that is precisely the problem. The collective mind does not want innovative change and efficiency - they just want their jobs and treat them as an entitlement.
Personally I think the real place where term limits are needed is all over the bureaucracy, and the higher up the position is then the shorter the possible term should be.
There was absolutely ZERO to do with “Democracy” that Fauci kept his job so long. The mindset that sees nothing wrong with his huge length of service just wants Democracy to be prevented from reordering the bureaucracy. They do not need or cherish elections, they are a hindrance to the unelected fourth branch of government’s rule by the experts.
“The order reclassified the workers as at-will employees, meaning the government can now terminate them without offering a reason.”
Not that I think the action is wrong but I do have to wonder if the law allows such a change of classification just by the President’s say so.
I read somewhere that after USAID shut down, the DNC had to take out loans.
generally senior policymakers
Let's see.........Who makes the policy decisions.......hmmmmmmmmm would that be President Trump?
There was a great scene in the TV series Yellowstone when Costner became Governor. He walks by a room of about 2 dozen people all around a conference table, just working away. He walks to the head of the table, and asks who the heck are all of you? They answer they are the Governor's policy group. He fires all of them.
“It’s a start.”
.
Yes, it is.
But 80,000 would be a GOOD start.
.
I love that those things happened but where is the savings to balance the budget. Even if stopping USAID and PBS were small I’d support it. But why does it seem we are no closer to a balance budget? Is it all the redundant employees or the bloated programs themselves like ObamaCare? Before Trumps term finishes, we need something substantial to get us there.
That’s ten$ billion.
You're too literate and sensible for me to believe that. That 90% Democrat government bureaucracy doesn't tolerate when one person makes the rest look like slackers.
What many folks are overlooking is the ONE PERSON preventing President Trump from achieving his goals and appointments because he's not-so-secretly following the Democrats' agenda.
His name rhymes with Thune.
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