Trump, Musk's latest moves to shrink the federal workforce explained
President Trump and right-hand man Elon Musk have rolled out a series of moves to cull the federal workforce, forging ahead with numerous methods to fire employees that have already sparked legal challenges.
The latest actions come as the Trump administration closed out its government buyout program — an offer that came with a warning that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.”
Agencies are now seeing that in real time, with thousands of people already let go and additional plans to boot employees underway.
“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said in an Oval Office meeting alongside Trump this week.
The Trump administration has turned to three different tools to shrink the workforce.
Probationary firings
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Thursday directed agencies across government to terminate government employees still on probation.
It’s a group that includes those hired in the last year or two years, depending on their agency — a group as large as 200,000 employees.
The move started with probationary employees hired by the OPM itself — and they’ve been creeping up since.
On Friday, the Department of the Interior fired 2,300 employees, the Department of Veterans Affairs fired 1,000, while Health and Human Services expected to fire 5,200 people. Other agencies likewise telegraphed their terminations.
While employees on probation are easier to remove than those with longer federal service, they do still have some protections.
Employee unions and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have questioned the legality of the move.
The ACLU argues the law requires reviewing each employee’s performance on a case-by-case basis, while any large-scale firings would have to follow existing law for shrinking the workforce. Employees must still be informed of “inadequacies” in their performance before being fired, the organization said.
The American Federation of Government Employees called the removals a “politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office.”
The OPM equated probation to a stage in the job application process.
“The probationary period is 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,” an OPM spokesperson said in a statement.
Directives for a 'reduction in force'
Trump signed an executive order Tuesday night directing all agencies to prepare for a reduction in force (RIF), clearing the way for “large-scale” layoffs within the government.
A White House fact sheet describes the order as part of a commitment to “reducing the size and scope of the federal government.”
“This order commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy,” it states, one that focuses on “eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity.”
The order gives government agencies 30 days to develop agency reorganization plans — laying the foundation for the layoffs.
From there, agencies must give employees at least 60 days' notice that a reduction in force is underway, which includes 30 days' notice to employees who will be removed. The government weighs a variety of factors, such as job performance and veteran status, in determining whom to lay off.
The order also aims to reduce the size of the workforce through attrition, telling agencies to “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service.”
Trump's order has already spurred a lawsuit from a coalition of unions, which argued it doesn't take into account the usual reasons for igniting a reduction in force.
“The Order directs agencies to promptly engage in RIFs for none of the specified, allowable reasons, but instead for the purpose of ‘eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity,’” they wrote.
“For example, it tells agencies to prioritize employees who would be nonessential during a lapse of appropriations instead of factors such as tenure and performance.”
Unions earlier this week also blasted the plans.
"Firing huge numbers of federal employees won't decrease the need for government services. It will just make those services harder or impossible to access for everyday Americans, veterans, and seniors who depend on them."
"Americans just want government to work when they need it. These reckless, unjustified cuts will accomplish only two things: huge tax cuts for Musk and Trump's billionaire buddies and a broken government for the rest of us."
Buyout program comes to an end
This week saw the abrupt end of the buyout program offered by the federal government after a court order Wednesday night cleared the way for the government to close the window on an offer initially proposed with a Feb. 6 deadline for acceptance.
Some 75,000 federal workers took the deal, which offered eight months of pay and benefits to employees willing to depart government service.
At roughly 4 percent of the federal workforce, the figure fell short of the 5 percent to 10 percent projections first floated by the White House.
Unions had likewise cautioned against accepting the buyouts.
Many of the contract terms conflicted with one another, while the end of government funding in March posed legal and logistical challenges, including raising doubts about whether the Trump administration would make good on the deal.
Regardless, the closing of the offer enabled the Trump administration to proceed with its other plans, including its push with probationary employees and to ignite a reduction in force.
“No, look, that’s 75,000 more than we would have had,” Trump said Friday.
“No, 75,000 is a lot of people. And we paid them well. You know, we gave them a lot of months of severance pay, if you call it that. But, no I think you’ll probably have some more, too, in addition. It’s a big, tremendous saving. We want to downsize government but make it better. Run it better, but downsize."
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