Trump Just Made It Easier to Fire Thousands of Federal Employees

President Trump escalated his control over the federal workforce Wednesday, signing an executive order to make it easier to fire government officials in senior positions.

The order reclassifies close to 8,000 federal workers in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” positions to at-will employees, allowing them to be fired without any stated reason. Most of these positions are at GS-15, the highest pay grade for federal civilian employees, coming with salaries of up to $200,000 a year.

This order covers directors, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers, policy analysts, people who oversee the distribution of federal grants, public affairs leaders, and legislative affairs leaders.

“They’re going to be hired on the basis of merit and confidence, but if they’re messing up, then they can be removed quickly—rather than taking a year longer to get rid of them,” James Sherk of the White House Domestic Policy Council told Trump at the order’s signing ceremony.

It’s another blow to government employees, who have seen their numbers shrink drastically in Trump’s second term thanks to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative and Trump’s attempts to purge civil servants at odds with his agenda. Over 300,000 people have already lost their jobs, and this order is projected to push out another 50,000 federal employees, according to a February estimate from the Office of Personnel Management.

This executive order is the culmination of an OPM rule change that took effect in March. The senior-level jobs the administration is targeting will still remain nonpartisan, career positions but now won’t have protections such as appeals processes, allowing the White House to fire them more quickly.

“The practical implications of this action are clear,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Wednesday. “Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out.”

President Trump took to Truth Social Thursday morning to rant about the recently passed war powers resolution—in which four of his own party members joined House Democrats to rebuke his war on Iran.

“Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump wrote. “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story—They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves.”

GOP Representatives Thomas Massie, Warren Davidson, Bryan Fitzpatrick, and Tom Barrett sided with Democrats in a 215–208 vote to adopt the resolution and send it on to the Senate.

“Many falsely claimed the War Powers Act empowers a president to wage any war for up to 90 days. That’s not true, but there are now new ways rationalize war in Iran. What they still don’t have? Congressional authorization. The oath is to our Constitution,” Davidson wrote Thursday morning. “The moral obligation is to the men and women who wage our wars. Define the mission. Authorize the mission. Accomplish the mission.”

Trump claims to be “right in the middle” of negotiations, even as the Iranian government claims there’s been “no tangible progress” made in them. The war powers resolution—which the vast majority of Republicans are against—is unlikely to actually get Trump to stop the war, as that would require his signature and an actual respect for the law. But it is a direct reflection of how the actual public feels about this war.

Four Republican lawmakers broke party lines Wednesday to pass a resolution curbing Donald Trump’s war powers in his military campaign in Iran.

The four Republicans who joined Democrats were Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The measure to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran passed in the House 215–208.

As a concurrent resolution, the measure must be passed by both chambers of Congress. Democratic Senator John Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, has single-handedly prevented previous versions of the measure from passing in the Senate, despite defections from three Republican senators.

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned Wednesday that passing the measure could be “very dangerous” in light of the stalemate in negotiations. But if the Trump administration is to be believed, the war is over—so why should it matter?

This story has been updated.

If you thought Donald Trump was obsessed with size before, you’ve got to see his latest chart comparing the freshly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with other, more phallic structures. 

Trump announced Wednesday that the final coat of protective seal on the Reflecting Pool would be applied that afternoon. “The water will start flowing, shortly, thereafter,” the president posted on Truth Social. Only time will tell if that actually happens. 

Speaking from the Oval Office shortly afterward, Trump whipped out a celebratory chart, which he’d previously posted on social media, to demonstrate just how big the Reflecting Pool is.

The chart sized up the 2,030-foot-long pool against the 1,451-foot-high Sears Tower in Chicago, New York City’s 1,454-foot Empire State Building, and the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center, arguably completely incomparable structures to the president’s preposterous pet project. The chart was titled “Our Pool is Bigger Than Skyscrapers.”

Crucially, Trump didn’t have anything to do with the actual construction of the pool, and he did nothing to increase its size. It seems he’s just trying to celebrate getting his hands on something so big and bringing it to completion.  

But Trump’s wet and wild foray on the National Mall has left Americans high and dry. 

The company contracted for renovations, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, fleeced the federal government to the tune of $13.1 million, seven times the price Trump initially presented for the projects.

President Trump loves the UFC ring on the White House South Lawn so much that he thinks it could stay there permanently.

On his official TikTok account Tuesday, Trump posted a video titled “MAYBE WE’LL NEVER TAKE IT DOWN,” comparing the arena to France’s Eiffel Tower, which was originally supposed to be temporary but stayed up. Like the tower, Trump said, the arena is “quite attractive to a lot of people” so “maybe we’ll never ever take it down.”

“People don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower, 1889 it was built. It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the world’s fair, and then they said … ‘Leave it up a little bit longer, and then they said, ‘Let’s leave it up longer and longer and longer,’” Trump said.

“Well, they never took it down, and you know we’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people. Really, it’s going to have the big UFC fight on June 14, and I’m looking at i,t and maybe we’ll never ever take it down,” the president added.

The UFC arena is being built for a June 14 fight scheduled as part of Trump’s Freedom 250 festivities, coinciding with Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday. Paid for by the UFC’s parent company, TKO Sports, the $60 million arena dwarfs the surrounding landscape and the White House behind it.

Is Trump trying to avoid paying for the arena to be taken down? Taxpayers are already expected to foot the bill for security for the fight, which the White House hasn’t said anything about and will probably be quite high. While the Eiffel Tower was only supposed to stay up for 20 years after its construction in 1889, it remains open to the public and is a major tourist attraction.

A UFC arena on the White House grounds would be closed to anyone who isn’t authorized by the president to be there. Trump has already turned part of Pennsylvania Avenue into a (ostensibly temporary) parking lot for America 250 events and bulldozed the White House’s East Wing to make room for an unpopular ballroom. What’s another permanent eyesore on what used to be considered the “People’s House”?