Federal employees are scrubbing their social media accounts of any negative posts about President-elect Donald Trump as they scramble to save their jobs before his inauguration.
Thousands of civil servants are taking steps to protect themselves from plans to slash the number of federal employees promised by Trump and his allies, according to The Washington Post.
Some federal employees are removing posts from X and Facebook, with one official who testified in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry considering filing retirement papers as others are taking steps to move to possibly safer agencies.
Recruiting firms in the nation’s capital have seen an increase in business from those looking for work in the private sector. Some agencies have taken action to reclassify some jobs with titles that go against the Trump agenda, such as those including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, environmental justice, and those looking to address the climate crisis.
Some civil servants are taking out liability insurance for the first time in case they need attorneys if they’re demoted or fired. Departing Biden administration appointees are working with labor unions to extend collective bargaining agreements, securing benefits before the second Trump administration can take action to remove them.
Staffers are working to take steps to protect themselves ahead of Trump instituting his plans to reshape the 2.3 million-strong bureaucracy. Trump has said he plans to fire thousands of federal employees and replace them with allies, and he intends to cut the federal budget by trillions, partly by fully shutting down some departments and relocating others.
Trump has said he wants to move some agencies away from Washington, D.C., and its federal workforce.
Earlier this year, Trump’s choice to run the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, said that the second stint of Trump in the White House would “put the bureaucrats in trauma,” The Post noted.
Some professionals in the federal bureaucracy are also concerned they may be targeted by the new outside commission run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Both have taken to social media to mock what they see as wasteful or political jobs.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 represents more than 1,000 scientists and administrators at the National Science Foundation. Its president, Jesus Soriano, told The Post: “There is shock and there is actual fear, and there is self-censure in the sense that people are scared about retaliation.”
The new Republican majority in Congress is looking at returning to old legislation to force teleworking employees to return to the office, allowing Veterans Affairs to get rid of workers who are not performing as expected and to enact mandatory training to make sure that staffers are following the administration’s plans.
A Trump transition spokesperson told The Post that the administration “will have a place for people serving in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of working men and women’s tax dollars.”
A National Weather Service meteorologist told the paper that he deleted mentions of how climate change affects extreme weather as well as any mention of union support.
He said he wanted to make “everything about me much more apolitical.”
“I generally take people at their word, and these people have said some pretty awful things about federal workers,” he added.
