Trump administration begins mass firings across government

Along with the “deferred resignation” program that the Trump administration has offered to federal workers who agree to quit later this year in return for still being paid for a few more months, a lot of people have been fired. The White House says that as of Wednesday, about 75,000 people had taken the offer. NBC News cannot independently confirm that number.

The administration wantThe Trump administration starts firing a lot of people across the government.

Trump administration begins mass firings across government

Along with the “deferred resignation” program that the Trump administration has offered to federal workers who agree to quit later this year in return for still being paid for a few more months, a lot of people have been fired. The White House says that as of Wednesday, about 75,000 people had taken the offer. NBC News cannot independently confirm that number.

The administration wantThe Trump administration starts firing a lot of people across the government.

The job cuts are being made without getting permission from Congress, which is needed to shrink or change the way government agencies work.

Thousands of people who had been working for less than two years were fired by President Donald Trump’s administration across the federal government on Thursday and Friday.

Some of the most well-known and respected government agencies were affected by the layoffs. These included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Homeland Security. Other important national security offices that got less attention were also affected, like the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). That body plans, builds, and keeps an eye on the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Employees on “probation” will be affected by the cuts. This is the latest step in Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s ambitious plans to shrink the government.

Almost all new federal employees have to go through a year or more of trial leave, during which they are less protected. This makes them easy targets for the Trump administration.

The purge happened quickly, right before the long President’s Day weekend. A CDC worker said that some staff were told they had two hours to get their things together and leave before they could no longer get into the building.

Some federal workers were scared, both about their own situations and about what might happen to the country if there were fewer skilled workers in the federal government.

A nuclear safety expert at the NNSA who was fired Thursday said, “The brain trust that was just fired is crazy.” She said it was her job to make sure the safety of the nuclear plants in four states. Like other people who were fired, she spoke on the condition that she not be named.

A representative for the department said that 405 people were let go from Homeland Security. This included more than 130 people at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and more than 200 people at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Trump administration cut jobs without asking Congress’s permission, and they did not ask for permission to shrink or reorganize government agencies. Democrats, labor unions, and progressive groups have said that Musk and Trump’s actions are illegal and go against the Constitution’s separation of powers, which gives Congress control over government spending. There are more than 60 lawsuits going on against the Trump government, saying that the president has exceeded his authority and broken other laws.

Reuters said that more than 3,000 people at the U.S. Forest Service and more than 1,000 people at the Department of Veterans Affairs were fired.

According to figures from the Office of Personnel Management, hundreds of thousands of people could be affected. However, it wasn’t immediately clear what all of those people would be fired. A person familiar with the situation said that OPM officials started the mass firings Thursday when they met with agency heads and told them to fire probationary workers.

OPM said in a statement Friday that the probationary time is “a continuation of the job application process” and not a right to a permanent job.

The office said, “Agencies are acting on their own in response to the recent hiring freeze and in support of the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest level.”

McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the OPM, said she didn’t know how many people were fired because departments aren’t supposed to give their totals back until Tuesday at 8 p.m. According to what she knew, not a single government agency was spared. She also said that firing temporary workers had nothing to do with what Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) did.

The job cuts are being made without getting permission from Congress, which is needed to shrink or change the way government agencies work.

Thousands of people who had been working for less than two years were fired by President Donald Trump’s administration across the federal government on Thursday and Friday.

Some of the most well-known and respected government agencies were affected by the layoffs. These included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Homeland Security. Other important national security offices that got less attention were also affected, like the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). That body plans, builds, and keeps an eye on the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Employees on “probation” will be affected by the cuts. This is the latest step in Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s ambitious plans to shrink the government.

Almost all new federal employees have to go through a year or more of trial leave, during which they are less protected. This makes them easy targets for the Trump administration.

The purge happened quickly, right before the long President’s Day weekend. A CDC worker said that some staff were told they had two hours to get their things together and leave before they could no longer get into the building.

Some federal workers were scared, both about their own situations and about what might happen to the country if there were fewer skilled workers in the federal government.

A nuclear safety expert at the NNSA who was fired Thursday said, “The brain trust that was just fired is crazy.” She said it was her job to make sure the safety of the nuclear plants in four states. Like other people who were fired, she spoke on the condition that she not be named.

A representative for the department said that 405 people were let go from Homeland Security. This included more than 130 people at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and more than 200 people at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Trump administration cut jobs without asking Congress’s permission, and they did not ask for permission to shrink or reorganize government agencies. Democrats, labor unions, and progressive groups have said that Musk and Trump’s actions are illegal and go against the Constitution’s separation of powers, which gives Congress control over government spending. There are more than 60 lawsuits going on against the Trump government, saying that the president has exceeded his authority and broken other laws.

Reuters said that more than 3,000 people at the U.S. Forest Service and more than 1,000 people at the Department of Veterans Affairs were fired.

According to figures from the Office of Personnel Management, hundreds of thousands of people could be affected. However, it wasn’t immediately clear what all of those people would be fired. A person familiar with the situation said that OPM officials started the mass firings Thursday when they met with agency heads and told them to fire probationary workers.

OPM said in a statement Friday that the probationary time is “a continuation of the job application process” and not a right to a permanent job.

The office said, “Agencies are acting on their own in response to the recent hiring freeze and in support of the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest level.”

McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the OPM, said she didn’t know how many people were fired because departments aren’t supposed to give their totals back until Tuesday at 8 p.m. According to what she knew, not a single government agency was spared. She also said that firing temporary workers had nothing to do with what Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) did.

Along with the “deferred resignation” program that the Trump administration has offered to federal workers who agree to quit later this year in return for still being paid for a few more months, a lot of people have been fired. The White House says that as of Wednesday, about 75,000 people had taken the offer. NBC News cannot independently confirm that number.

The administration wants to get rid of as many as 10% of the federal workers.

Musk doesn’t believe that his cuts could hurt anyone. In a post on social media on Friday at 1:42 a.m., he said that the government was like a computer that never worked right.

Is it possible to turn the government off and on again? That’s what he asked on X.

Musk and Trump are going to do an interview together with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday.

Federal employee pay only makes up 6.6% of the total budget, so firing a lot of people probably won’t have a big effect on the budget imbalance.

New workers and people who are just starting out in their new jobs in the federal government have to go through a probationary period, no matter how well they do their job.

A worker for the Department of Housing and Urban Development gave NBC News a copy of their most recent performance review, which said they were “exceeds fully successful.” On Friday, that worker got an email telling them their job was ending “as part of a workforce restructuring.” Also in the email, it said they did not have the right to make a complaint about being fired.

It looks like the administration is using a meat axe instead of a scalpel at some departments.

Two HUD workers said that senior managers were told in meetings that the total number of employees would be cut by up to 50% over time. They said that an email about the plans hadn’t been sent to a lot of people yet.

Marion Owens Powell, head of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, says that hundreds of employees at the EPA were fired on Friday around 5 p.m. through an email. About 8,500 people who work for the EPA are in Powell’s union. Powell said that EPA managers told her that at least 300 of the workers are had been fired.

In the email, it said that workers who were in the office at the time “must turn in your EPA badge, laptop, parking hang tag, travel credit card, office keys, and any other EPA property you have right away.”

Powell said, “Even though many people were there, they were already at home.” “People can’t believe how upset they are.”

The Associated Press says that the cuts at the CDC touched about 10% of the agency’s staff, or about 1,300 probationary workers.

A techie who was fired Thursday from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said they were doing fine personally but were stressed about how their agency was being broken up.

“I’m so sad about what this means for consumers and the CFPB’s ability to keep them safe from shady business,” they said.

They said, “I ran for office to serve the people and protect them. By firing our technologists, they’ve made it harder for the CFPB to look into bad behavior by Big Tech, especially as more and more of them get into consumer finance.”

The CFPB was only created in 2011 as a response by Congress to the world financial crisis of 2008–2009. It goes after illegal debt collection and other bad behavior like that. However, many Republicans have long said that its rules are too hard for legal companies.

People like Musk and Trump want to close down the CFPB and other government agencies like the Education Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Thursday, probationary workers at the Energy Department were fired, and staff were told about a plan for a large-scale “reduction in force” that will start in 30 days, according to someone who was there. The plan, according to the source, called for a lot of workers to return to their old workplace by the end of March.

A document on NASA’s website from Tuesday says that the space agency is also looking to cut staff, but it doesn’t say how many people would be affected. Friday, a NASA spokesperson said, “It’s too early to talk about the effects on our agency.” The agency is “following the guidance and direction provided by OPM.”

People in the U.S. don’t agree on whether the government should be bigger or smaller, but most people do respect many state agencies. A poll by the Pew Research Center last year found that 67% of U.S. adults had a positive opinion of NASA, making it the third most admired federal body. Fifth on the list was the CDC, which 55% of people said they liked.

Now, some fired workers are in terrible emotional situations, especially since the job market is so bad.

The former NNSA nuclear safety expert said, “I will say that I am scared on a personal level.” The person who used to work there now doesn’t work there anymore. They have three kids, two of whom are autistic and need extra help. Someone who used to work there said that her husband is stuck at a job in New Mexico, where they live.

They said, “I might have to move without my husband and kids to find a job.” But, “with the flood of federal people coming into the job market,” that might not be easy to do.

Emails with the subject line “Notification of Termination During Probationary/Trial Period” were used at the NNSA to let people know they were being fired.

At times, the process has been sloppy. For example, the CIA sent its list of temporary workers in an unclassified email, which made people worry that it could be gotten by foreign enemies.