Alina Habba suggests some veterans 'not fit' for government jobs
White House counselor Alina Habba on Tuesday suggested some veterans are perhaps “not fit” for government jobs.
“As you know, we care about veterans tremendously. I mean, that's something the President has always cared about, anybody in blue, anybody that serves this country. But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” Habba told reporters outside the White House when asked about veterans who worked for the federal government.
“That doesn't mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they're not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work. … I wouldn't take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry, they're not going to come to work.’ It's just not acceptable," Habba said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) knocked Habba’s Monday comments in a post on X.
“Our veterans risked everything for America—now they come home to be told by those who've given nothing for this country that they’re ‘not fit.’ They're more than fit to serve,” Moore said.
The Trump administration and its new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission have been cracking down on government spending and the size of the federal workforce. Veterans make up roughly 30 percent of federal employees, and veterans advocates have been sounding the alarm about the impacts of DOGE cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and elsewhere.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) estimated last week that DOGE, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has fired approximately 6,000 veterans as part of the government overhaul.
“Our veterans make significant sacrifices in service of our country, but those sacrifices do not seem to matter to President Trump and unchecked billionaire Elon Musk,” DeLauro said in a statement asking the administration to provide an exact number of veterans fired and “what they plan to do to support them.”
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) are both planning to bring veterans fired by DOGE as their guests to Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday night in protest of the cuts.
“Ricky was abruptly let go, despite the protections afforded to him as a veteran and stellar performance reviews, during DOGE’s chaotic round of firings earlier this month. The Administration abandoning veterans like Ricky is unacceptable,” Gillen said of her guest, Ricky Sanchez, in a statement.
And Republican Rep. Tom Barrett (Mich.) announced on Monday that he'd sent a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins raising concern about the workforce reductions and calling on the department "to review and reconsider their workforce reduction process to ensure only those who have truly underperformed are relieved of duty."
"Our veterans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, even if separation is warranted," Barrett said.
In a recent video message on changes at the VA, Collins stressed that, saying, "We're taking care of the veterans, I promised you that from day one."
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