Hundreds of thousands of employees could lose their jobs as president embarks on mission to cut government spending
US President Donald Trump and his administration began the mass firing of thousands of federal workers Thursday, embarking on his mission to cut unnecessary government spending, according to multiple news reports.
A total of seven agencies were reported to have terminated employees after meeting with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the United States Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the Small Business Administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
All the employees being terminated are probationary employees, typically new hires and those who have been working for the federal government for only a year or two and are still under a probationary period with no civil service protections.
"The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment," an OPM spokesperson said in a statement. "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 mass firings of probationary employees come in the wake of 77,000 federal workers who took a voluntary "deferred resignation" buyout that the president offered, with a judge approving the plan on Wednesday. But that number is just 3% of the 10% target which the government was trying to achieve to slash the federal workforce.
While OPM officials have not specified exactly how many government employees will be terminated, analysts expect that more than 200,000 federal workers nationwide could be fired once the dust settles.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) condemned the mass firings.
"These firings are not about poor performance. There is no evidence that these employees were anything but dedicated public servants. They are about power," said AFGE President Everett Kelley in a statement. "They are about gutting the federal government, silencing workers, and forcing agencies into submission to a radical agenda that prioritizes cronyism over competence."
Kelley went on to say that the Trump 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."
Other federal agencies have been in the crosshairs of Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which fired or placed thousands of employees on leave earlier this month.
Musk and his DOGE task force are expected to continue slashing what he and the president have called "wasteful spending" in the federal government.
