Inside the Trump Purge: Federal Workers Tell Their Stories
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What experiences are federal workers facing during the Trump administration purge?
I think I just got deactivated on my government computer. I can try one more time. It just kicked me out of Teams. Let's see if I can open my Outlook. Yep, I no longer have access. Okay. Yeah, I don't even know. Yeah, like, I'm looking at my office. I have, again, pictures of me and my buddies in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have, like, a Marine Corps flag behind me. There's, like, a pit in my stomach. I'm a little combat vet going to work at the VA. Like, I was like, you know, no one's really coming after us. And then, like, I thought the VA would be fine. No. Like, I'm totally fired now. So, like, I just... If I'm getting fired, like, who's next, you know? Like, I... I thought I'd be the safest, and I was one of the first to go.
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.
Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state. That's the way it's got to be.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump and his allies left little doubt that if they returned to power, they would try to make working for the federal government as miserable an experience as possible.
We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.
by treating career bureaucrats as the enemy and by driving them out through layoffs, buyouts and agency closures.
The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives.
President Trump today doubling down on his move to dramatically and rapidly shrink the federal workforce.
Thousands of employees were fired yesterday across numerous agencies. And this is just the start, with other workers being warned that large workplace cuts are coming.
Now that Trump's plan has become a reality, we asked dozens of federal workers to explain in their own words what it's been like to actually live through it.
First off, can you tell me how you'd like to be identified? Yeah, if I could just be anonymous, that would be best, I think.
I would prefer to be anonymous, yes.
And why do you want to be anonymous? I'm afraid that I will be targeted.
I'm concerned that I would just be putting a target on my back.
Fear of retaliation. By the top of my chain of command. By the White House.
I work at the Environmental Protection Agency.
I work within the Department of Interior.
I work for USAID. For the Department of Veterans Affairs. Health and Human Services. For the US Army Corps of Engineers. I work to keep our ports and waterways safe and delivering for the public.
A lot of the work that I did was focused on improving diagnosis and treatment services for children.
I love my job. Public service is important to me. I get to see every day the positive impacts that my job and my agency have. have on my community. My mom worked for the county and my dad worked for the state. You progress to working for the government because you're a citizen and that's the best thing that you can do. And so that's why I went there. It was probably my dream job. I've I've been with my department for 15 years. 17 years. Two and a half years.
I have worked as a federal employee for over 23 years. This is the first administration transition that I've ever been so uncertain about what I'm being asked to do. Having worked for the last Trump administration, I didn't really anticipate anything this severe. And we all were a little caught off guard initially.
Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It's all about common sense.
In light of the damage done by the Biden administration's DEI and woke policies, what this presidential memorandum orders is elevating competence instead of the DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration.
The day after the inauguration, our director came on and started going through some of these executive orders. The first one mentioned was the cease and desist of all DEIA activities, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
14 identified
Anonymous Federal Worker 10 min
Anonymous Veteran Federal Worker 4 min
Michael Barbaro 3 min
Anonymous USAID Worker 2 min
Donald Trump 1 min
Anonymous Forest Service Worker 1 min
Anonymous EPA Worker
Interviewer
Anonymous Department of Interior Worker
Marco Rubio
News Reporter
Presidential Aide
Music Transition
News Anchor