Where Trump, Musk and DOGE Have Cut Federal Workers So Far

President Trump has moved swiftly to wage his war on the federal bureaucracy, defying norms and legal limits. On Tuesday, he signed a new executive order to limit new hiring and commence what he called a “critical transformation” of government.

Mr. Trump has specific targets: foreign aid workers, inspectors general, Jan. 6 investigators, and diversity, equity and inclusion workers. He has also given broad powers to Elon Musk’s government efficiency operation, which has inserted itself into more than a dozen agencies in search of spending and staffers to cut. Many of those agencies had been investigating Mr. Musk’s companies.

Courts have temporarily halted some of the administration’s efforts but many more layoffs across the government are expected in the weeks ahead. Here are the cuts and temporary removals that The Times has confirmed as of Tuesday.

Targeted for agency dismantling

Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have made it clear they intend to shut down the nation’s aid agency, U.S.A.I.D. The administration began by putting nearly 60 senior staffers on leave and letting internal records be examined by what has been called the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative led by Mr. Musk. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Mr. Musk posted on X on Feb. 3.

Days later, the Trump administration said it would drastically reduce the aid agency’s work force, from more than 10,000 down to just a few hundred staffers. A judge temporarily halted the effort for more than 2,000 employees. Mr. Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance has also put thousands of nonprofit and private sector jobs in limbo.

Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a financial industry watchdog, may be next. Mr. Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X on Feb. 7. The next day, the acting director of the bureau told the staff of more than 1,700 to effectively halt work.

Mr. Trump has also proposed closing other agencies, including the Education Department and FEMA, where he fired the chief financial officer and three others on Tuesday.

D.E.I. workers

Only a few agencies have reported these figures and the list above is incomplete.

In late January, the Trump administration ordered agencies to put staff members with oversight of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on leave, though some affected workers have said they had no connection to D.E.I. in their daily work. Within 24 hours of his inauguration, the Trump administration also fired the U.S. Coast Guard commandant for supposed mismanagement and an “excessive focus” on diversity within the service, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement.

The president also removed two Democratic commissioners and the general counsel from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent agency that fights workplace discrimination. The commission’s new acting chair said her priorities would include “rooting out unlawful D.E.I.-motivated race and sex discrimination.”

Mr. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to rescind federal support for D.E.I. policies — rolling back initiatives aimed at reversing discrimination and systemic inequities that have disproportionately affected Black people, women and underserved communities.

Jan. 6 and Trump investigators

The Justice Department’s campaign of retribution against officials who investigated Mr. Trump and his supporters has led to abrupt upheavals at the agency.

In late January, the acting attorney general fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two criminal investigations into Mr. Trump for the special counsel Jack Smith, saying they could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda.

Days later, the department fired more than a dozen prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington who had been hired to investigate the Jan. 6 riot. The same day, the Justice Department’s leadership ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigations to gather names of the thousands of agents involved in the Trump and Jan. 6 investigations.

At least nine high-ranking officials at the F.B.I. have also been removed since Mr. Trump’s term began.

Government watchdogs

The Trump administration fired at least 17 inspectors general in a late-night purge on Jan. 24.

The cuts defied a law that requires presidents to give Congress 30 days’ notice and detailed reasons for the removal of the watchdogs, who work to uncover corruption and fraud across government agencies. In Mr. Trump’s first term, inspectors general investigated at least eight of his cabinet members, according to Campaign Legal Center.

On Tuesday, the inspector general for U.S.A.I.D. was fired, a day after he released a report warning that agency cuts risked the misuse and waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Mr. Trump also fired the three Democrat-selected members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency that investigates national security activities that can intrude upon individual rights. Only one Republican member remains, and another seat is vacant, leaving the board unable to take official action.

On Feb. 10, Mr. Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who was involved in vetting the new Trump administration appointees for potential conflicts of interest. Mr. Trump also removed the director of the Office of Special Counsel, a government watchdog agency, but a judge has temporarily blocked this firing.

Other staffers

Mr. Trump has also moved to fire individual members of certain agencies, including the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, the nation’s archivist, and the general counsel and a Democratic board member of the National Labor Relations Board, which protects workers’ rights.

The firing of the labor board’s general counsel was widely expected in normal administration turnover. But the removal of the board member, who was meant to serve out a five-year term, is without modern precedent. The board now has just two members; under federal law, it needs at least three members to act.

Mr. Trump’s new staff has also carried out broad removals of employees within their agencies: The State Department fired about 60 contractors who work for its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. And Mr. Trump’s national security adviser sent about 160 National Security Council workers home.

Source: Elections - nytimes.com