Written by James Oliphant and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump is poised to control the federal government more than any modern president before him when he takes office on Monday, moving forward with his plans to dismantle what he and his allies call the “deep state.” “According to two sources familiar with the transition discussions.
Those efforts could begin as early as Trump's first day as president, according to one source, with an executive order aimed at stripping job protections from an estimated 50,000 career federal employees, allowing them to be replaced with carefully selected loyal appointees.
Another source told Reuters that the Trump administration will also push to fill thousands of political appointments in the government as soon as possible.
The goal is to inject political loyalists deeper into the workings of government, perhaps more so than any other modern president.
In a harbinger of what may lie ahead, Trump's team has requested the resignation of three senior diplomats who oversee the US State Department's workforce and internal coordination, Reuters reported this week.
Trump's allies blame bureaucrats they view as disloyal for thwarting his agenda during his first term in the White House through slow initiatives at the Justice Department, Education Department and other agencies.
Nearly a dozen of Trump's top appointees to his second term have been given explicit authorization to change the federal workforce or express support for those plans, according to staff announcements and media interviews reviewed by Reuters.
Russell Vought, whom Trump has nominated to return as director of the Office of Management and Budget, played a central role in drafting an earlier version of the reclassification order, known as Schedule F, when Trump was leaving office in 2020.
The revived executive order on Schedule F will allow agency officials to reclassify positions from career positions to political appointments, said one source familiar with transition planning.
This would enable agencies to fire professional staff without cause and replace them.
Vought will be assisted during Trump's second term by Sergio Gore, who has been nominated to head the White House Personnel Office.
Fire lines
Others charged with taking down the “deep state” include Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, potential next FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, education nominee Linda McMahon, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The Reuters review found, who will head Trump's Cabinet efficiency efforts.
When asked, Trump's transition team did not provide details about the timeline for the planned change, which could take months due to federal rulemaking procedures.
“A Trump administration will have a place for people in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of the tax dollars of working men and women,” White House spokesman Brian Hughes said.
Pundits and unions representing federal workers say there is no such thing as a “deep state,” and that Trump and his allies are trading in conspiracy theory to justify seizing executive power.
James Eisenman, an attorney and expert on federal workforce policy, said in an interview that Trump is wrong that most government employees have an ideological agenda and noted that under current law, underperforming or recalcitrant workers can be fired.
He said Schedule F would create a culture of silence and fear that could affect job performance.
“People will be afraid to speak up or even suggest something useful for fear of being fired,” Eisenman said. “When people are afraid, it's not easy to get them to do things.”
The new designation aims to create a “secret police” within the federal government, Steve Linkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Labor, said in an interview.
He added, “The next administration admits that it will use Schedule F to subject professional employees to tests of professional or political loyalty and will get rid of undesirables.”
Hughes, Trump's transition spokesman, did not respond to questions about the role individual candidates would play in implementing Trump's agenda, or the “secret police” allegations.
Find goals
During Wednesday's Senate hearings, Vaught and Bondi expressed support for the policies behind Schedule F.
Foote testified that he believed parts of the federal government had been “weaponized.”
He declined to answer questions about whether he had advised Trump to conduct mass firings, but said the reclassification of career employees would ensure the president had individuals in a policy-making role who were “responsive to his views and his agenda.”
During the hearing, Bondi said that Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump was evidence of partisanship within the Justice Department.
She pledged not to use the department to target people based on their politics, but avoided direct questions about investigating Trump's political opponents.
Biden's Justice Department has long denied that it brought criminal cases against Trump for political reasons. It did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The process of identifying members of the federal bureaucracy whose views might conflict with the incoming administration has already begun.
In December, the American Accountability Foundation, working with support from the conservative Heritage Foundation, sent a letter to Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth in which it identified 20 leaders in the US military whom it considered to be overly focused on diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended such efforts, saying military diversity reflects the diversity of the United States.
The Pentagon referred a request for comment to Trump's transition team.
The American Accountability Foundation also published a “Top 10 Targets” list on its website for career staff at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, which it claims are resisting increased border security efforts.
Yates Friedman, a spokesman for the group, said there are more names to come.
