section_path: Second presidency (2025–present)/Mass terminations of federal employees
section_name: Mass terminations of federal employees
paragraph_text: Mass terminations of federal employees
  
  Trump implemented a hiring freeze across the federal government and ordered telework of federal employees to be discontinued within 30 days. He ordered a review of many career civil service positions with the intention of reclassifying them into at-will positions without job protections. He initiated mass job terminations of federal employees, which were described by legal experts as unprecedented or in violation of federal law, with the intent of replacing them with workers more aligned with his agenda. By late February, the administration had fired more than 30,000 people. To facilitate further terminations, it adopted a novel legal interpretation that vastly expands the range of departments and agencies considered as having national security for their primary function, declaring various federal workers' unions "hostile". A late March executive order based on this interpretation excluded dozens of departments and agencies from federal labor-management relations programs, prompting them to sue to invalidate their collective bargaining agreements, which could remove union protections from one million federal employees. He ordered an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) projects in the federal government and placed employees in DEI offices on leave. He rescinded Executive Order 11246, which mandated affirmative action and nondiscrimination practices for federal contractors.
  
  Trump and Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency largely dismantled several federal agencies including USAID and the Department of Education, unilaterally fired several thousand staff, and reduced administrative functions to statutory minimums. Some actions, such as attempts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were paused by federal courts. Many of his actions attempted to bring historically independent institutions under direct executive branch control in diminished forms.