US President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have expanded their campaign to reduce US bureaucracy, resulting in the dismissal of more than 9,500 employees who handle everything from managing federal lands to caring for veterans.
According to a report by the British news agency ‘Reuters’, employees working in the departments of the Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Health and Human Services were fired as part of a campaign that targeted people who are probationary employees who have little job security.
According to the White House, these dismissals are in addition to the 75,000 workers who have offered to voluntarily leave their jobs by Trump and Musk, which is equivalent to about 3% of the civilian workforce of 2.3 million people.
The US president says the federal government is too big, and too much money is being wasted on fraud, the government is about $36 trillion in debt and had a deficit of $1.8 trillion last year.
According to Trump, there is bipartisan consensus on the need for reform, but Democrats in Congress say Trump is interfering with the legislature’s constitutional authority over federal spending, while his fellow Republicans, who hold majorities in both houses of Congress, have largely supported the measures.
The speed and scope of Musk’s efforts have led to frustration among some of Trump’s aides, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wells, over a lack of coordination, sources say.
In addition to job cuts, Trump and Musk have sought to eliminate civil service protections for career employees, which has frozen out most Americans.
Foreign aid and some government agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), have been almost completely shut down.
Sources familiar with the job cuts say that about half of the employees working at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have been forced out of their jobs, and others have been furloughed.
The U.S. Forest Service has decided to lay off 3,400 recently hired employees, while the National Park Service is laying off about 1,000 employees.
The Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes, is preparing to lay off thousands of workers next week, a move that could strain resources ahead of the April 15 deadline for Americans to file their income taxes, two people familiar with the matter said.
Other spending cuts have raised concerns that critical services are at risk, with federal programs halting seasonal firefighters a month after the Los Angeles wildfires, and forest fire hazards such as dead wood being removed.
Critics have questioned the hawkish approach of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has gained unprecedented influence under Trump.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant brushed aside those concerns, comparing Musk’s so-called Office of Government Performance to a financial audit.
“These are serious people, and they’re going from agency to agency, doing audits, looking for best practices,” he told Fox Business Network.
Budget experts say Musk is relying on young engineers with little government experience to manage his DOGE campaign, and his initial cuts appear to be made out of ideology rather than to reduce costs.
