Trump administration directs agencies to plan for massive layoffs

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's administration has issued a memo saying federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions. 

The move could become a sweeping realignment of American government.

Senior officials set the downsizing in motion on Wednesday with a memo that dramatically expands Trump's efforts to scale back a workforce described as an impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now the Republican administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

What they're saying:

"We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to," Trump said during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. "We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job."

RELATED: DOGE workers quit: 21 federal technology staffers resign

The ripple effects will be felt around the country. Roughly 80% of federal workers live outside the Washington area, and government services — patent approvals, food inspections, park maintenance and more — could be hindered depending on how cuts are handled.

The other side:

Resistance is expected. Labor unions, Democratic state leaders and other organizations have tried, with some success, to slow Trump down with litigation, while Republicans are growing more concerned about how a slash-and-burn strategy could affect their constituents.

"Once you do this damage, it’s going to be incredibly hard to rebuild the capacity of these organizations," said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan. "It’s not like you can turn the switch back on and everything is going to be the way it was before."

What's next:

Agencies are directed to submit by March 13 their plans for what is known as a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate the position altogether. The result could be extensive changes in how government functions.

RELATED: Elon Musk email to federal employees targeted in lawsuit

No specific targets for cutbacks were included in the memo. However, as an example, Trump said the Environmental Protection Agency could reduce its staff by 65%.

More plans are due on April 14, when agencies are expected to outline how they will consolidate management, become more efficient and potentially relocate offices to parts of the country that are less expensive than Washington. The memo said agencies have a Sept. 30 deadline for implementation.

Dig deeper:

Administration officials framed their effort as a cost-saving measure with a clear ideological goal.

"The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public," said the memo from Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency. "Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens."

Vought was an author of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump's second term, and he has advocated for centralizing power under the presidency and dismantling federal bureaucracy.

"We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation," Vought said last summer during a podcast hosted by Trump ally Stephen Bannon.

Moynihan described the memo as a "backdoor way" of reducing the size of government since Congress hasn't passed any legislation to cut programs.

"There’s a fundamental realignment of power here," he said. "This administration is saying we have much more power than any previous administration when it comes to deciding how government works."

The backstory:

Trump foreshadowed the effort in an executive order that he signed with Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

The order said agency leaders "shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force," or RIF.

Some departments have already begun this process. The General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, told employees on Monday that a reduction in force was underway and they would do "everything in our power to make your departure fair and dignified."

RELATED: Trump administration cuts at least 1,600 USAID jobs, places global staff on leave

Law enforcement, national security, public safety, military positions and U.S. Postal Service positions are exempt.

The memo was released shortly before Trump convened Cabinet officials as well as Musk, who attended the meeting wearing a black "Make America Great Again" campaign hat.

Musk described himself during the meeting as "humble tech support" for the federal government, and he talked about his cost-cutting crusade in existential terms.

"If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt," he said.

Musk has caused turmoil within the federal workforce, most recently by demanding that employees justify their jobs or risk getting fired. OPM later said that the edict was voluntary, although workers could face similar requests in the future.

He described his request as a "pulse check."

"Are these people real? Are they alive? And can they write an email?" he said.

Before the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that "all of the Cabinet secretaries take the advice and direction of DOGE."

"They’ll be providing updates on their efforts, and they’ll also be providing updates on what they’re doing at their agencies in terms of policies and implementing the promises that the president made on the campaign trail," Leavitt said.

PoliticsU.S.NewsNews