by Robert Schmad
Government workers are reportedly in a state of panic over the prospect of former President Donald Trump winning another term in office, according to E&E News.
Bureaucrats up and down the federal hierarchy are concerned that a second Trump administration could cost them their jobs and put an end to liberal programs they worked to implement under President Joe Biden, E&E News reported. Trump has, if elected, pledged to implement reforms that would allow him to fire up to 50,000 civil servants at will, with the former president singling out workers who are incompetent, unnecessary or undermine his democratic mandate.
“The first rendition of the Trump administration was really, really difficult, and we saw a mass exodus of employees retiring,” a National Park Service employee told E&E News. “If we do have an administration shift, other employees will also reconsider their positions and move to the private sector. I don’t know what I’ll end up doing.”
Of the civil servants that didn’t exit during Trump’s first term, many worked internally to deliberately obstruct his agenda, according to Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019 and admitted to engaging in such behavior. Bureaucrats are worried that Trump may seek to appoint administrators who agree with his agenda this time around.
“He’s going to get people in place that are more intelligent and are more loyal to him,” a park service employee said. “Now I think he could do a lot of damage.”
To replace large numbers of federal employees, Trump would reclassify them as Schedule F employees, allowing him to fire them at will. The Biden administration finalized a rule in April that would prevent their status from being changed involuntarily, however, allies of the former president have shrugged off the rule by pointing out that a Trump administration could simply reverse it, according to The New York Times.
Amid fear that Trump’s plans may come to fruition, bureaucrats are making moves to ensure the Biden administration’s policies are as hard to repeal as possible, a senior employee at the Interior Department told E&E News.
“The concern hasn’t been focused on who the Democratic nominee is as much as concerns about Trump winning and what that would mean,” they said. “From everyone’s perspective it is get as much done as possible. Also trying to bury into the agency programs [like environmental justice] so they can survive a Trump administration.”
Conservatives are increasingly optimistic about Trump’s chances of defeating Biden in November as the president lags behind Trump in the polls and the Democratic Party grapples with internal disputes regarding whether or not he should be their nominee.
“The mood is somber and incredulous,” one long-time employee of the Department of the Interior told E&E News. “The hope is we will not suffer through another term with the prior leadership, but the fear [is] that if we do, they will target employees they don’t like, make things up to justify whatever punishment they want and just cripple the good work we are doing.”
Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meanwhile, are also upset and agitated, the president of a union representing some of the agency’s employees told E&E News. “So many of our members lived through the absolutely disastrous first Trump administration and his attempted dismantling of EPA,” she said.
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Robert Schmad is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Years ago I had the unfortunate role in management and was handed a ner-do-well bunch of workers whose sole accomplishment in life seemed to be filling in their bonus forms. My instructions were to get rid of as many of them as possible without triggering an HR nightmare and lawsuits.
Simple solution. I worked them until they quit. Nothing special, not one person singled out for anything. Reports were due on time or there were penalties. If expense reports were not filled out properly, they weren’t paid until they were correctly submitted. Work hours were enforced with 0800 meetings and 1600 meetings. Failure to attend was a warning, second time a warning even so the employee manual allowed for dismissal at that point and third time was definite dismissal. Took only three months to empty the office of the dead wood. Those that remained were fantastic workers and we had a great following year together.
Cheater has resigned from the SS. Her position should remain permanently open until it can be abolished. Same across the board at all agencies.
“He’s going to get people in place that are more intelligent and are more loyal to him,” a park service employee said. “Now I think he could do a lot of damage.”
The key wording in the above quote is “more intelligent”. And, no, he’s not going to do a lot of damage, he’s going to undo all the damage the marxist bureaucrats have inflected on our country.
This is one of the biggest problems that will have to be addressed. There are so many partisan employees in the government, they are a major part of the problem.