Opinion: How US Federal Workers Have Found Themselves Inside an Episode of The Apprentice

One of the many radical executive orders put forward by Trump was the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Trump’s billionaire muse, Elon Musk. The purpose of the department has been described as “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”. But it has translated into thousands of government employees being forced out of their roles, by either being fired or receiving an offer of “deferred resignation”. 

The recent frightening development was the decision to send out an email to all federal workers demanding that they list five things they had done in the past week, or they could consider themselves fired. A move that received much pushback, including from the departments headed by Trump loyalists, such as the State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon. FBI Director and strident ally of Trump, Kash Patel, advised employees to not reply as it could compromise privacy and security. However, the move was backed by president Trump as he posts on his social media, “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.”. 

On Friday, Federal workers received a second round of emails demanding they report their work, this time heads of departments like Pete Hegseth, told their employees to comply. Trump’s apprentice-style “you’re fired!” policy does not end there. He has targeted specific government officials, such as Ellen Weintraub, chair of the Democratic Federal Elections Committee (FEC). The FEC was responsible for overseeing federal elections and enforcing campaign finance laws.  The Justice Department has also reported the firing of numerous prosecutors involved in the criminal investigations of the president. This is followed by the news that the administration fired eight senior FBI officials for investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.  

It goes without saying that this approach by the US government is unprecedented, but the report that actually inspired me to write this article was insider information retrieved by Emily Maitlis for the News Agents podcast. Maitlis reported having a contact who is a federal worker that provided information which had not made the news headlines. This contact refused to communicate with her via email or WhatsApp, instead using the app Signal, a communication channel that is apparently being used by government employees, as they fear using government computers and email.  This adaption comes as a result of being sent an email address which asks them to spy on their colleagues. They do not know who is at the other end of the email. 

The contact explains this has naturally cultivated a climate of fear, particularly for younger employees who are terrified to say the wrong thing in case a MAGA insider reports them. They further reported that these developments had caused new fears such as being reported due to a delay in getting the new President’s portrait displayed in the office.  Those that warned Trump would be a threat to America’s democracy were often labelled as having “Trump derangement syndrome”. Yet, it does not seem so deranged now with the reports of firing “disloyal” federal workers and directing the others to spy on potentially deviant colleagues.

These are policies you expect to hear from the historic regimes of the Gestapo and Stasi, not 21st century America.   

Donald Trump denied on several occasions of supporting the document Project 2025, a manifesto of sorts, put forward by a conservative think-tank called The Heritage Foundation. Yet, POLITICO have produced an article demonstrating thirty-seven ways Project 2025 have appeared in Trump’s executive orders. Most notably, reclassifying federal employees so you can fire them more easily and installing loyalists in senior government positions. 

Perhaps the signs had been there all along, but that does not change the fact that thousands of federal workers have lost their careers, and that the American government is now being reduced to loyalists rather than experts.  No story of democratisation starts with a leader packing the system with loyalists and firing all the checks and balances.

Whilst this may feel like an episode of the, The Apprentice, its consequences will not.