Donald Trump made butchering the federal workforce a major issue during his 2024 campaign for President. And since taking office for the second time on January 20, he’s thoroughly made good on it—with relish.  

There is no better symbolism of this than the video of his billionaire enforcer Elon Musk literally wielding a chainsaw at a CPAC convention at Orin Hill, Maryland, on February 20.

Musk appeared onstage, wearing shades and his trademark black “Make America Great Again” hat, and said Argentine President Javier Milei had a gift for him.

The Argentine leader then walked onstage with the red chainsaw and passed it to Musk. The chainsaw was engraved with Milei’s slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo”—“Long live liberty, damn it.”

Waving the power tool high, Musk shouted: “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy! Chainsaw!”

Elon Musk

Meanwhile, CNN has been tracking the number—and effects—of the mushrooming cuts at federal offices in Washington and across the United States. 

By February 28, these are the numbers so far:

• HUD Community Planning and Development – About 780 employees fired (83.3%)
• Agency for International Development – About 2,000 employees fired (20%)
• Department of Energy – At least 1.8 thousand employees fired (10.6%)
• National Forest Service – About 3.4 thousand employees fired (9.7%)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – About 800 employees fired (6.4%)
• Internal Revenue Service – At least 6,000 employees fired (6.3%)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – About 750 employees fired (5.9%)
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – At least 100 employees fired (5.9%)
• Food and Drug Administration Food Division – 89 employees fired (4.5%)
• National Institutes of Health – About 1.1 thousand employees fired (5.3%)
• Department of Education – At least 60 employees fired (1.4%)
• Federal Aviation Administration – About 400 employees fired (0.9%)
• Department of Defense – 5.4 thousand employees fired (0.8%)
• Department of Veterans Affairs – At least 2.4 thousand employees fired (0.5%)
• Transportation Security Administration – 243 employees fired (0.4%)

Others who have been summarily fired—without warning–include:

• 17 Inspectors General, the executive branch watchdogs who conduct audits and investigations of executive branch actions
• The Board of Trustees members for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts —with Trump naming himself as chairman
• Elain Weintraub, chair of the Federal Elections Committee, which enforces campaign finance laws and oversees federal elections
• Gwynne Wilcox, the first black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board;
• Eight senior FBI officials involved in investigating the January 6 Capitol riots
• Several Justice Department prosecutors who had investigated Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate

And this is just within the first month of the Trump administration. More mass firings are certain to be coming.  

Donald Trump

But statistics tell only part of the story—and entirely leave out the human element. Among the reactions of the fired federal employees interviewed by CNN:

• “In spite of everything, I am just waiting on word to go back to work so I can serve the American people. That’s why I’m in public service; that’s why all of us are.” Federal worker – Food and Drug Administration
• “There are five of us [in my office] who moved over from other HR departments. We are military spouses, we are veterans, one with 18 years.” – Arielle Pines, Veterans Affairs
• “I was given no time to reach out to colleagues or even clean out my office.” Andria Townsend – National Park Service  
• “It was a job I loved doing, protecting consumers every day. It will also have a pretty serious financial impact on my family.” Federal worker – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
• “I don’t even have a letter of termination to get unemployment.” Victoria DeLano – Department of Education 
• “I deployed twice. I spent so much time away from my family. I was gone when my mom passed away. I feel very much like the message is that my service isn’t valued.” Chelsea Milburn – Department of Education employee and veteran

All of this was entirely predictable—long before Trump re-entered the White House. 

And Part Two of my three-part series, “Love Thy Dictator,” published on August 21, 2024, did just that.  From that post:

Donald Trump’s  ambition to become absolute dictator fits brilliantly into the goals of Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project.    

This is a collection of policy proposals to fundamentally reshape the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 Presidential election.

Established in 2022 by the Right-wing Heritage Foundation, the project aims to recruit tens of thousands of radical Right-wingers to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civil servants.

Under Project 2025:

• Republicans consider federal employees to be subversives who comprise the “deep state.”
• Replacing tenured civil servants with thousands of political hacks will arm Republicans with the power to establish an absolute dictatorship under the next Republican president.
• Republicans believe the Department of Justice has “forfeited the trust” of the American people by investigating Donald Trump’s proven collaboration with Russia to win the 2016 Presidential election.

• As a result, the DOJ must be thoroughly “reformed” and tightly overseen by the White House.
• The director of the FBI must be personally accountable to the President—just as the head of the KGB is personally accountable to Vladimir Putin. 
• Federal employees could be instantly fired for not obeying illegal orders, or on mere whim—including the whim of the President.