Trump, Musk Cut Nearly 10,000 Jobs In US Agencies

The White House said that the firings are in addition to the approximately 75,000 workers who have accepted a buyout offered by Trump and Musk to leave voluntarily.

US President Donald Trump & Elon Musk, chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Source : X

US President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, the chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), escalated their campaign to drastically reduce the US bureaucracy, with more than 9,500 federal workers terminated on Friday. The layoffs affected employees across departments including Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. The job cuts primarily—but not exclusively—targeted probationary employees in their first year, who have fewer job protections.

According to Reuters, the White House said that the firings are in addition to the approximately 75,000 workers who have accepted a buyout offered by Trump and Musk to leave voluntarily. This accounts for about 3% of the 2.3 million-person civilian workforce. Trump argues that the federal government is overly bloated, with excessive waste and fraud. With the national debt at around $36 trillion and a $1.8 trillion deficit last year, there is bipartisan recognition of the need for reform.

However, congressional Democrats argue that Trump is overstepping the legislature’s constitutional authority over federal spending. Meanwhile, most Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, have largely backed the actions. As per Reuters, the rapid and extensive nature of Musk’s efforts has led to growing frustration among some of Trump’s aides over a lack of coordination, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Along with job reductions, Trump and Musk have sought to dismantle civil-service protections for career employees, freeze most US foreign aid, and move toward shutting down certain government agencies, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), almost entirely, Reuters reported.

Almost half of the probationary workers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others at the National Institutes of Health have been forced out. The US Forest Service has fired around 3,400 recent hires, while the National Park Service terminated about 1,000.

The tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service prepared to fire thousands of workers next week, two people familiar with the matter said, a move that could squeeze resources ahead of Americans' April 15 deadline to file income taxes.

Other spending cuts have raised concerns that vital services were in danger. A month after wildfires devastated Los Angeles, federal programs have stopped hiring seasonal firefighters and halted the removal of fire hazards such as dead wood from forests, according to organizations impacted by the reductions.