Trump Administration Fires Thousands of Government Workers

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.

Some 1,165 employees at the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have been fired, according to an internal email. An HHS spokesperson did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the agency previously confirmed the agency had been terminating workers but declined to say how many have been fired.

Several hundred workers on probationary status have been fired by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations National President David Spero said in a statement that “it is shameful to toss aside dedicated public servants who have chosen to work on behalf of their fellow Americans.”

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 U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Feb. 14 that it is “eliminating positions that are no longer necessary” as part of “an aggressive plan to optimize its workforce.” The agency did not return a request for more details.

“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.

The cuts are in addition to the terminations of more than 1,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and layoffs at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

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.

Officials were also firing U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees, but a federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to halt the terminations with an exception “for cause related to the specific employee’s performance or conduct.”

Trump in January established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement his agenda and, on Feb. 11, directed agency leaders to work with DOGE to “initiate large-scale reductions in force.”

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.

“Many of these abrupt terminations will do more harm than good, stunting opportunities in Alaska and leaving holes in our communities,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on social media platform X.

“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.

Murray and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said in a joint statement that they were alarmed by the terminations at the Department of Energy. With the firings, they said, the department “has sent a strong message that it does not view the oversight and safety of legacy nuclear weapons cleanup sites as a national security priority.”

Reuters contributed to this report.