As soon as Trump was sworn in under the watchful eye of his new Praetorian Guard made up of the greatest fortunes in the worldgot to work signing the first decrees.
One of the priority decrees was the official creation of DOGEhe Efficiency Department Government that will be directed by Elon Musk. The second, change the status of federal workers so that Musk can fire them at his discretion.
Fire career officials. One of the most controversial points of the executive order that Donald Trump signed after his appointment is the change in status for career officials, in charge of enforcing regulations regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.
To guarantee this independence, these officials had additional protection contemplated in Annex F (Schedule F). One of Trump’s executive orders mandates change this protected statusso they can now be fired if they do not comply with the orders of their superiors. This was one of the requirements of Project 2025 which has been developed by the most radical wing of the Republican Party, and which Trump has denied throughout the campaign, until just after his appointment.
Only loyal officials. In another section of this executive order it is established that “Because SES officials exercise significant government authority, they must act at the will of the president”, placing special emphasis on that presidential figure, for which it has modified different sections of Annex F “Failure to do so will be grounds for dismissal,” the order states.
Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, assured from a statement issued by the organization that “The executive order on the federal workforce is a power grab by Trump, expanding his authority to fire employees he perceives as insufficiently loyal.”
Michelman claims that, “during the last Trump administration, he encountered federal workers who were following the law, rather than indiscriminately following his orders. Federal workers should not be fired because they are more loyal to the US Constitution than to the president. That is a threat to both our constitutional values and the rule of law.” “The real goal of the order is to target workers based on their real or perceived disloyalty toward the president and his political goals,” Scott Michelman concludes.
The excuse of efficiency. Another of the controversial points that complement this executive order is that all officials and the 2.3 million federal civilian employees must be evaluated for the efficiency of their work and, if it is not satisfactory, they could be fired. However, that same order prohibits “certain personnel actions” and “actions based on the employee’s partisan affiliation, other protected characteristics or due to the employee’s status as a whistleblower.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, declared to the cnn: “President Trump’s order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by removing employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons. It will eliminate hundreds of thousands of federal nonpartisan professional civil service jobs and make them responsible before the will of a man”.
Closing of hiring and teleworking. Given the massive filtering that the entire US federal administration is going to face, the executive order signed by Trump hours after his appointment, indefinitely canceled any contracting process of the administration.
Furthermore, the order signed by Trump urges all federal employees without exception to go to their offices, all being revoked teleworking agreements. The only exception would be that, as how it happened In some Amazon offices, the facilities did not have enough capacity to accommodate them all. In that case, it is anticipated that “provided department and agency heads make such exemptions as they deem necessary,” so they could send some officials back home.
According to data provided by nearby sources to the new government, its calculations show that only 6% of public employees work from the offices of their agencies. However, a report prepared by the US Congress reveals that the figure is much higher, exceeding 54%, and only 10% of civil servants do it completely remotely.
Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore, Government of India)