Prepare for large-scale layoffs Trump Administration tells to agencies while Musk says he can achieve $1 trillion in cuts.
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters)—The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to massively reduce their workforce. Downsizing czar Elon Musk pledged at Trump's first cabinet meeting to pursue further spending cuts.
A recent memo from the administration instructed agencies to submit plans by March 13 for a "significant reduction" in staffing. This comes at a time when the federal workforce is already struggling from the layoffs and program cuts implemented by Musk. The memo did not specify the number of layoffs that are being targeted.
The memo, signed by White House budget director Russell Vought and Charles Ezell, the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management, signifies a significant escalation in Trump and Musk's efforts to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
So far, the layoffs have primarily affected probationary workers, who have less experience in their current roles and enjoy limited job protections. The next phase will target a significantly larger group of veteran civil servants.
During the cabinet meeting, Trump stated that Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, intends to reduce his workforce by up to 65%, which exceeds 15,000 employees.
On Tuesday, a source from the Interior Department informed Reuters that agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs should brace for workforce reductions between 10% and 40%.
Since Trump took office, approximately 100,000 of the 2.3 million civilian federal workers in the nation have either been let go or offered buyouts. That's a significant shift in the federal workforce landscape!
Trump showed unprecedented support for Musk's cost-cutting efforts by inviting him to the cabinet meeting and asking him to discuss the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, which is managing the overhaul.
Cabinet secretaries observed as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, wearing a black "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a T-shirt that said "Tech Support," expressed his confidence in being able to reduce the $6.7 trillion budget by $1 trillion this year. Achieving such an ambitious goal would likely require considerable disruption to government programs.
Without such deep spending cuts, Musk said, "the country will go de facto bankrupt."
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to collaborate with the Department of Government (DOGE) to review and terminate all "unnecessary" contracts. He also instructed the General Services Administration, responsible for managing government real estate, to develop a plan for disposing of any unneeded properties.
So far, Trump and Musk have not been able to reduce the rate of government spending. A Reuters analysis reveals that the government spent 13% more in Trump’s first month in office compared to the same period the previous year. This increase was primarily due to higher interest payments on the national debt and increasing health and retirement costs associated with an aging population.
Trump reiterated his promise to refrain from cutting popular health and retirement benefits that account for nearly half of the budget.
"We're not going to touch it," said Trump.
Trump is urging Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are the key legislative achievement of his first term and set to expire at the end of the year. According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the 2017 tax cuts added $2.5 trillion to the nation's debt, which currently stands at $36 trillion. The committee also estimates that extending these tax cuts could cost more than $5 trillion over the next decade. Republicans are considering cuts to healthcare and food assistance for low-income individuals as a way to finance the tax cuts, although specific plans have yet to be announced.
TRUMP SAYS SOME WORKERS 'ON THE BUBBLE'
Some of the cabinet secretaries were taken by surprise over the weekend when federal workers received an email requiring them to list their accomplishments for the week, a demand that Musk said would result in termination if ignored.
Some agencies told employees to ignore the directive, prompting days of confusion over whether Musk and Trump could make good on the threat.
Musk, the world's richest person, told the cabinet meeting his email was an attempt to find out whether government paychecks were going to actual workers.
"We think there are several people on the government payroll who are dead," he said, without providing evidence.
Trump suggested that the roughly 1 million workers who did not respond to Musk's email might be at risk of losing their jobs.
"They are on the bubble," he said, using a slang term to refer to a situation that has an uncertain outcome.
Trump and Musk's unprecedented government overhaul has also frozen foreign aid and disrupted construction projects and scientific research.
The GSA, informally known as the government's landlord, plans to terminate 1,100 leases for office space by the end of the year, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The terminations will focus on what are known as soft-term leases, which can be easily ended since they are no longer subject to cancellation penalties, according to the source. The General Services Administration (GSA) oversees approximately 2,800 soft-term leases in total, in addition to thousands of "firm-term" leases that cannot be terminated without cause.
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