In a highly controversial move on his first day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that reclassifies the employment status of potentially tens of thousands of federal workers, stripping away civil service protections and making it significantly easier to fire those deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration and its objectives.
The executive order, titled “Initial rescissions of harmful executive orders and actions,” effectively reinstates the contentious “Schedule F” policy pursued in the final months of Trump’s previous term. That policy sought to redesignate a broad swath of career federal employees as political appointees who could be terminated without the usual civil service safeguards.
Targeting the “Deep State”
For Trump and his inner circle, this move represents a critical step in their crusade against what they perceive as a so-called “deep state” – a supposed permanent government of unelected bureaucrats, intelligence operatives, and other agents working to thwart their radical right-wing agenda, regardless of which party controls the White House.
Key Trump allies like Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, have long called for a purge of the civil service to root out this alleged “administrative state,” even while acknowledging privately that the deep state theory is “for nut cases.” Nonetheless, it forms a central pillar of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for Trump’s second term that envisions mass firings of government workers seen as roadblocks to the conservative revolution.
Trump’s New Leadership Team
To spearhead this assault on the federal workforce, Trump has assembled a leadership team fully committed to his slash-and-burn approach to governing:
- Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025, has been tapped to run the Office of Management and Budget
- Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency”
- Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, will serve alongside Musk
Their mission? To identify and eliminate trillions in government spending that doesn’t align with the administration’s priorities – and to clear out any personnel who might stand in the way. As one senior White House official bluntly stated, “The president was elected to burn it all down, and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
Opposition and Obstacles Ahead
Trump’s executive order has already drawn fierce condemnation from federal employee unions, government watchdog groups, and opposition lawmakers who see it as a dangerous politicization of the civil service. Many have vowed to fight the policy in court, arguing it violates long-standing laws and constitutional principles.
Impartiality and professionalism are consistently related to positive performance outcomes, higher public trust and confidence, and lower levels of corruption.
Study in Public Administration journal
However, legal experts caution that the Schedule F approach may ultimately prevail, even if it provides a window for the administration to ram through sweeping, irreversible changes before the courts weigh in. As government reform expert Donald Kettl warns, “Even if Schedule F loses, it would provide two years for the administration to establish a new pattern of practice.”
Bracing for Upheaval
As Washington braces for a seismic upheaval in the ranks of the federal workforce, the implications for effective governance remain ominous. A recent meta-analysis of nearly 100 studies concluded that efforts like Trump’s Schedule F “unequivocally” degrade government performance, sap public trust, and open the door to heightened corruption.
Yet for the ascendant forces of Trumpism, that may be a feature, not a bug – a necessary step in their quest to “deconstruct the administrative state” and reshape government in their own image. As the battle lines form, one thing is certain: the functioning of the federal bureaucracy, and the essential services it provides to the American people, hangs precariously in the balance.
