Trump campaigned on reducing the size of the government.
The Trump administration fired thousands of workers across several government agencies after the deadline for employees to accept a buyout passed.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was among the agencies to confirm it had fired workers to comply with directives from President Donald Trump.
“EPA has terminated 388 probationary employees after a thorough review of agency functions in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
Several hundred workers on probationary status have been fired by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.
The FAA did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Department of Energy told news outlets over the weekend that dozens of staffers at its National Nuclear Security Administration were let go, with the former employees all having been on probationary status and primarily with roles dealing with administrative and clerical functions. The terminations across the department reached 1,800, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” a letter sent to terminated employees stated.
At least 160 recent hires at the U.S. Department of Education have been notified of their termination, according to an internal letter.
“The Department does not comment on specific personnel matters due to privacy,” a Department of Education spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
OPM officials recently met with officials from other agencies on Feb. 13 and advised them to lay off probationary employees, many of whom have been with the government for less than a year, a source familiar with the meetings told The Epoch Times.
About 217,000 federal employees had been with the government for less than one year as of March 2024, the last month for which data were available, out of the full-time workforce of around 2.3 million.
DOGE has gone into various agencies and worked on identifying ways to make them more efficient, according to agency heads.
DOGE has been blocked from the Department of Treasury, but judges in other cases have declined, at least for now, to prevent DOGE from accessing data at the Health and Labor departments.
After Trump took office, his administration warned of looming cuts and offered government employees a buyout, or deferred resignations, that pays them until the end of September and does not require them to work while they’re being paid. The deadline to accept the offer was Feb. 12. About 75,000 employees accepted the offer, according to the White House.
“Nobody knows what the final number is because in the end, I think a lot of people aren’t going to show up to work,” Trump told reporters in Washington on Thursday. “A lot of people, they got used to staying home and ‘working,’ but you know I wonder if they had other jobs or other things.”
He added later that getting rid of government workers “is a big tremendous saving” and that “we want a downsized government, but make it better.”
Unions, advocacy groups, and lawmakers have criticized the terminations, arguing that they unnecessarily undercut important government work.
“I share the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government, but this approach is bringing confusion, anxiety, and now trauma to our civil servants—some of whom moved their families and packed up their whole lives to come here,” she added later.
Reuters contributed to this report.
