President-elect Donald Trump has promised to shake up Washington, D.C. upon his return to the White House, taking aim at the federal workforce based in the capital city.
Trump has railed against the “deep state” and vowed to “dismantle” it as part of his campaign pitch, setting up several actions that could reshape Washington, D.C., during his final four-year term as president. Here are some of the ways Trump could affect the federal workforce once he returns to the White House next month.
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Loosening protections for federal workers
Trump has made a vow to reimplement mechanisms to rapidly fire federal workers, including reclassifying numerous jobs under Schedule F.
Schedule F was a classification Trump imposed on several federal jobs via an executive order, which removed protections to tens of thousands of federal workers and made it easier for them to be fired. President Joe Biden’s administration implemented a rule earlier this year adding protections for millions of federal workers, likely delaying Trump’s plans — at least temporarily.
In the greater Washington, D.C., area, there are more than more than 300,000 federal workers, according to the Washington Post, and Trump will likely want to go through most agencies when firing disloyal federal workers. One area where Trump will likely starting the firings will be in the Justice Department and intelligence agencies.
Part of Trump’s 10 point plan to “dismantle the deep state,” which he unveiled as part of campaign in March 2023, was to “overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.”
He also set his sights on “rogue bureaucrats and career politicians” as part of his revamp of the federal workforce as outlined by his campaign.
Moving jobs out of DC
Another proposal Trump has outlined is shifting jobs out of Washington, D.C., as he seeks to fulfill a longstanding campaign promise of draining “the swamp.”
“Continue Trump administration effort to move parts of the federal bureaucracy outside of the Washington Swamp, just like President Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado,” one of the points of Trump’s 10 point plan said. “Up to 100,000 government positions could be moved out of Washington.”
Trump’s decision to move BLM to Grand Junction, Colorado, was reversed by the Biden administration months after taking office. Biden’s BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning told CNN the move out west was “wildly disruptive,” but former Trump officials told the outlet the move outside the beltway attracted new applicants who were not wanting to live in Washington, D.C.
The president-elect and his incoming administration have not offered concrete details on which specific jobs at which agencies they seek to move out of D.C., but it does appear to be one of the priorities for their shake up of the federal workforce.
Broad cuts to federal agency workforces
One of the top matters Trump has addressed during the transition period has been the desire to cut down the size and waste of the federal government through a new initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, has a goal of a “smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy,” and a big part of that would be cutting the workforce in various federal agencies.
While campaigning in support of Trump, Musk outlined that he believes that the government should reduce the headcounts of various agencies but offer lengthy severance packages.
They can earn double income, go on vacation, whatever they want. It’s a good deal. https://t.co/vxSOeyyQmH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2024
“The point is not to be cruel or to have people not be able to pay their mortgage or anything. We just have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere,” Musk said on the campaign trail.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services, told NBC News shortly after the election that he believes “entire departments” in some cases should be cleared out, alleging corruption and waste. He specifically outlined the failures of nutrition departments in the Food and Drug Administration, saying that they are “not doing their job.”
“They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Fruit Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients and you go to Canada and it’s got two or three?” Kennedy told the outlet.
Return to in office work
Among the federal employees which the Trump administration will retain, returning them to in-office work appears to be a priority.
One of the initiatives already being spearheaded by DOGE is pushing back on the increased adoption of remote work for federal employees.
“Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business,
and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time,” Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) report on remote work in the government said. “Members of President Biden’s own cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable.”
The report from the chair of the Senate DOGE caucus found that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 3% of federal workers were teleworking full time, compared to nearly a third of federal workers who do so now.
A push to return federal workers to the office more frequently is one part of the incoming Trump administration’s plans that local officials are praising. Business in downtown D.C., has suffered without federal employees going into the office regularly. Thousands of employees taking public transportation to get into their offices downtown is set to give the D.C Metro and local businesses that depend on foot traffic a huge boost. Local leaders have largely been in favor of federal workers being mandated to return to their offices.
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The D.C. Metro has yet to fully restore ridership to pre-pandemic levels, with weekday metrorail ridership still down 39% when comparing July 2024 to July 2019. Weekend metrorail ridership has returned and exceeded 2019 figures, but with the higher number of remote and hybrid workers, weekday ridership is still lagging behind.
Reduced ridership has recently put a strain on the D.C. Metro’s funding, with the transit agency having to request additional funds from local jurisdictions after it faced a $750 million deficit — which could have led to cuts to service and layoffs. WMATA was able to get the funding before reaching the deficit.
