The Trump administration has begun firing probationary federal employees — a move that potentially affects hundreds of thousands of workers — as part of a broader effort to downsize the federal workforce, warning that more cuts are coming.
Probationary workers are part of the mass layoffs within federal agencies
According to The Associated Press, probationary workers who in most cases had less than a year on the job were dismissed by the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human resources agency. A source who requested anonymity confirmed the move, as they were not authorized to speak publicly. OPM workers were also dismissed Thursday.
President Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders since taking office last month. The most recent directives were aimed at federal workers, which would produce mass layoffs across all agencies. Trump warned employees Tuesday that agency leaders are planning “large-scale reductions in force,” per Blavity and AP.
‘I think we need to delete entire agencies’
Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has pushed for restructuring the federal government since assuming his role in the White House. In a video call to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Musk explained the Trump administration’s plans in regard to “bureaucracy.”
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said, according to CBS News. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
Other federal agencies have been impacted
Earlier in February, workers for the U.S. Agency for International Development at the Washington, D.C., headquarters were told via email not to show up and to stay home, according to Blavity. At the time, Musk claimed both Trump and several Republicans had fully supported the idea.
A federal judge then ordered Trump to temporarily lift a funding freeze that had initially shut down U.S. humanitarian aid and development worldwide, according to The Guardian. On Thursday the judge explained how the freeze caused financial devastation for suppliers and nonprofits that send a substantial portion of aid overseas.
The Department of Education is the latest on Musk and the Trump administration’s list of federal government agencies to shut down. CBS News reported that workers from the DOE were laid off Wednesday in multiple departments, including its civil rights office.
