WASHINGTON — On Donald Trump’s campaign website, the former president lays out a potential doomsday scenario for as many as 150,000 federal workers in the DMV.
“I will immediately reissue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the president's authority to remove rogue bureaucrats,” Trump says in the video. “And I will wield that power very aggressively.”
What that means is the reclassification of up to 50,000 civil servants as political appointees, stripping them of job protections that shield them from being fired for political reasons, allowing a would-be Trump administration to replace those federal workers with those people who would more vigorously carry out Trump's conservative agenda.
“And to think 50,000 is the magic number is absurd because number one, that's just the tip of the iceberg,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which is the largest union representing federal and D.C. government workers. “Our union members are very worried about that.”
Kelley estimates closer to 500,00 federal workers nationwide could be at risk of losing their job for political reasons if Trump is elected and enacts the plan by executive order, which means there is nothing Congress, or anyone else could do, to stop it. Trump enacted that same executive order near the end of his previous presidency, but was defeated before it had any impact on the federal workforce. President Joe Biden repealed the change days into his administration.
Reinstating that Executive Order is part of the 900-plus page “Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project,” written by former Trump staff members and published by the ultra-conservative heritage project. It is a guide to fast-track a detailed list of conservative values and policies within the first 180 days of the new administration.
Former President Trump has denied any direct knowledge of Projects 2025 proposals.
The Heritage Foundation declined an interview for this story, but said in a statement, “As we’ve been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign. We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president. But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
But reclassification of civil servants is not the only Project 2025 recommendation endorsed by Trump.
“As many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out, and I mean immediately, of Washington, to places filled with patriots who love America,” Trump said in a campaign video.
In fact, former President Trump began that process during his last administration, shipping the entire headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management, more than 300 jobs, out of the District to Colorado. The Biden administration undid that too, bringing all those positions back to D.C.
Now, Trump is threatening even deeper job losses to the DMV if elected again, including the complete dismantling of the Department of Education.
“It will be very devastating to the family” of those federal workers, Kelley said. “Because they depend on that income, right, to pay the bills, to make sure that they have food to eat, to make sure that the children have an opportunity to gain, a good education, all those types of things.”
Kelley added the loss of 100,000 government jobs would be devastating to D.C., already struggling with huge loss of tax revenues post pandemic.