How Many Federal Government Workers Has Trump Fired So Far?

(Zero Hedge)—The first month of Donald Trump’s second term has been a hurricane of activity, with Elon Musk’s DOGE pursuing a scorched earth policy on government waste.  Despite continuing disruptions by Democrats and activist judges the audits of federal government agencies continue.  Trump’s executive orders are likely designed to catch the bureaucracy off guard so they don’t have time to hide their mismanagement.  However, in all that beautiful mayhem many in the public are confused as to what cuts have actually been made.

Establishment economists are predicting a recession for the Washington DC area due to the mass layoffs (which is not necessarily a bad thing).  The concern over recession within the financial media helps to illustrate how real the cuts are and how worried the progressives have become.  Some argue that conservative employees will be caught up in the cleansing along with their leftist counterparts, however, looking at the voting record of the population of DC it’s not much of a threat.

Over 92% of the district voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.  Only one Republican candidate has ever won more than 20% of the DC vote (Richard Nixon in 1972).  The town is crawling with leftists, many of them working within the bowels of the government.  No tears should be shed over rising unemployment in Washington.

The federal government employs 3 million civilian workers today – A massive number.  The last time the government had this many employees was in 1994.  The foundation for ever growing government was established in 1933 under Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”; social programs and debt spending became the norm.  The national debt grew by 50% in only three years after the New Deal was passed and, contrary to the propaganda, it accomplished little in the way of solving the problems at the root of the Great Depression.

Trump’s federal cuts, if he follows through as he has promised, could mean the smallest federal government apparatus in almost a century.  Here is a list of agencies that have received pink slips so far…

USAID

Trump now has the legal go-ahead to gut USAID.  The organization has at least 10,000 employees and most of them will be fired in the coming weeks.  So far 2000 are being put on leave while others are being reviewed to determine if they are essential.  It is expected that Trump will ultimately keep less than 300.

Deferred Resignations

The White House offered a “deferred resignation” proposal in exchange for financial incentives to almost all federal employees who opted to leave their jobs by February 6th.  But a federal judge blocked Trump’s plan, wanting to hear arguments from the administration and the labor unions.  According to the Office of Personnel Management, about 75,000 federal employees had accepted the offer.

Probationary Employee Layoffs

Federal workers with less than one year on the job are subject to immediate layoffs.  All agencies have been ordered to fire such employees, meaning up to 220,000 are let go.  Many of these probationary workers are included in the general cuts for institutions like the Department of Defense.

IRS

Trump is moving ahead with layoffs within the IRS.  The agency employs at least 100,000 people and Trump’s cuts only affect 6000 of them.  However, questions are swirling over Trump’s intentions to eliminate the IRS entirely, a move which most Americans would welcome.

Department of Homeland Security and TSA

The DHS has executed only 400 layoffs so far, all of them considered “non-mission critical” personnel.

FAA

The FAA has fired 400 staff according to the union representing the employees.  DOGE has also been ordered to further investigate and streamline the efficiency of the agency.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

100 workers have been fired from the CFPB.

Department of Education

The battle over the Dept. of Education is ongoing.  No measurable layoffs have been executed yet, but Trump says he intends on removing the agency entirely, which would mean 4400 worker layoffs.

Department of Energy

The department famous under the Biden Administration for hiring a trans activist official that liked to steal women’s luggage from airports.  Approximately 2000 personnel have been fired so far.

Department of Health and Human Services

Thousands of probationary employees were cut from the HHS and NIH along with 700 employees fired from the CDC.

Department of Land Management

At least 2300 employees have been let go including 800 from BLM and 1000 from the National Park Service.

EPA

Around 500 staff have been terminated from the EPA after an efficiency review, including the entire staff of the EPA’s Diversity and Inclusion office.

Small Business Administration

720 SBA employees were fired, including hundreds of probationary workers.

US Forest Service

Around 3400 employees have been terminated from the Forest Service, at least 10% of the total staff.  Much griping has been made in the media about these job losses, though many of them involved positions in “climate change education” and DEI initiatives.  The layoffs do not include firefighters, law enforcement officers, bridge inspectors or meteorologists.

Inspectors General

Each of the federal government’s largest agencies has its own independent inspector general who is supposed to conduct objective audits, prevent fraud and promote efficiency.  Trump has fired at least 17 of them and it’s understandable why.  With the amount of fraud and waste DOGE has found so far, it’s difficult to justify their continued employment.  What a surprise, the bureaucrats policing the bureaucrats doesn’t work.

Department of Justice

Trump is firing all Biden era attorneys from the DOJ, including those that hounded him over the last four years.  The Justice Department said last month that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of Trump by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.

State Department

A large number of senior career diplomats who served in politically appointed leadership positions, as well as in lower-level posts at the State Department, left their jobs at the demand of the new administration.  It was not immediately clear how many nonpolitical appointees were being asked to leave.

DOGE’s Window Of Opportunity

Given that Trump has faced ongoing legal challenges on his crusade to reduce the size of government, the level of cuts is still extensive.  DOGE is a limited program that ends in 18 months, just in time for Mid-Term elections where Trump will need to solidify the conservative control of the Congress and Senate while also booting out those pesky deep state Neo-Cons still haunting the the halls.  Whatever layoffs they plan to enforce will all be done in the next year.

This means the whirlwind will continue. Legal opposition will likely wane as it becomes clear to Democrats that there’s nothing they can do to stop the policies that the American people voted for.  It will be interesting to see what the federal government looks like in 2026.