Trump, Musk escalate purge as thousands fired across federal workforce
WASHINGTON – Thousands of recently hired federal workers were fired Thursday and Friday as President Donald Trump and top White House official Elon Musk escalated efforts to purge the federal workforce.
The cuts targeted probationary workers across all departments. Federal employees in probationary status have typically been hired in the past year. Probationary workers are easier to fire because they lack the bargaining rights of career employees to appeal their terminations.
Terminations were government-wide: from the Department of Education and Small Business Administration to the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the agency that oversees the nation's fleet of nuclear weapons.
Veterans Affairs said Thursday it dismissed more than 1,000 of about 43,000 probationary employees across the department, producing an estimated savings of about $98 million.
"This was a tough decision, but ultimately it’s the right call to better support the Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the department exists to serve,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement.
The full tally of the layoffs across the federal workforce was unavailable Friday. The Office of Personnel Management declined to provide a total or estimate when asked by USA TODAY. About 220,000 federal workers ‒ out of a workforce of 2.3 million ‒ had less than one year of experience as of March 2024, according to the most recently publicly available data from OPM.
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10% of workers cut at U.S. Forest Service, CDC
The U.S. Forest Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that manages national forests and public lands, fired about 3,400 probational workers, according to a source familiar with the cuts.
It represents nearly 10% of the Forest Service workforce of 35,000 employees. The source told USA TODAY the layoffs don't extend to firefighters, law enforcement officers, bridge inspectors or meteorologists.
Forest Service workers anticipate that Schedule A employees, who include disabled people and veterans working two-year probational periods, will be targeted next, the source said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday cut nearly 1,300 probational workers, about 10% of the agency's workforce, the Associated Press reported.
About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy, including 325 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, were terminated, according to Reuters. The NNSA manages the U.S. nuclear weapons fleet and works to secure radiological materials around the world.
“This week, less than a half of a percent of the total NNSA workforce was dismissed," an Energy Department spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the department "will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence."
The firings intensified after Trump's buyout offer expired Wednesday night. That offer, extended to most of the federal workforce, extended Federal employees eight months of pay and benefits through September in exchange for their immediate resignations. About 75,000 federal workers accepted the buyouts, about 3.3% of the workforce, below the White House's goal of 5% to 10% of workers taking the deal.
An Office of Personnel Management spokesperson confirmed the layoffs in a statement, calling an employee's probationary period "a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment."
"Agencies are taking independent action in light of the recent hiring freeze and in support of the President's broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest possible standard," the OPM spokesperson said.
Education Department among the targets
More than 60 probationary employees at the Department of Education received termination notices across multiple work groups, including the offices of general counsel, special education and rehabilitation services, and federal student aid.
"The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest," reads a termination notice to a federal student aid employee obtained by USA TODAY.
Hundreds of probationary employees at the Small Business Administration received similar notices. Politico reported 720 SBA employees were fired, accounting for about 20% of the agency's workforce.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 800,000 federal workers, slammed the Trump administration for "throwing away the very talent that agencies need to function effectively in the years ahead." He vowed his union would fight the firings.
"This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office," Kelley said in a statement. "These firings are not about poor performance ‒ there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants. They are about power."
Musk seeks to 'delete entire agencies'
Future cuts to the workforce are expected to extend beyond just probation workers.
Trump ‒ joined by Musk in the Oval Office ‒ signed an executive order Tuesday that seeks to significantly reduce the size of the government by instructing heads of federal departments and agencies to undertake plans for "large-scale reductions in force." Musk is leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which has swiftly moved from one department to the next, gutting agencies.
"We need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave part of them behind," Musk said in video remarks Thursday to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "If we don't remove the roots of the weed, it's easy for the weed to grow back."Musk and his DOGE team have already moved to effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Trump has said eliminating the Education Department is next.
"I’d like it to be closed immediately," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "Look, the Department of Education is a big con job."
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