If you work for the federal government, there’s a good chance you could be getting a pink slip – or at least a severance package before getting shown the door in the new Trump Administration, On The Money has learned.
In a move to tame the leviathan known as the vast federal workforce, President-elect Donald Trump created a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” headed by Tesla chief Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The dynamic duo – tasked with hacking $2 trillion in costs of waste and abuse – have their eyes set on eliminating swaths of government jobs that have been considered untouchable because of civil service rules, people close to the matter said.
They’re looking at ways around those rules. During Trump I, The Donald signed an executive order designed to grant the White House power to fire civil servants if it does so en masse; you need to whack whole departments rather than individual jobs to get around civil service rules.
They’re also weighing private-sector methods that include doling out severance packages. Businesses do this all the time of course; for some short-term pain in terms of upfront costs you gain greater savings in the future.
But it’s unusual for the public, and the cuts are sure to face resistance; that’s why Trump advisers are weighing severance agreements — paying salaries and benefits for a couple of years — to entice people to leave before their jobs are eliminated, people close to Trump tell On The Money. --->READ MORE HERE
President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental entity helmed by billionaire Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is expected to make a push for an end to remote work across federal agencies as a way to help reduce the federal workforce through attrition.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have recently publicly lamented the number of employees working remotely across the government.
A source familiar with early discussions about the focus of DOGE, as the initiative is known, told CNN that while nothing is final, early priorities include an effort to immediately end remote work across federal agencies, making a five-day work week a requirement for all federal employees.
“It’s a no-brainer step and many companies have done this. So why shouldn’t federal employees who are paid with taxpayer dollars be required to be in office?” the source said.
The thinking is this kind of mandate, coupled with moving agencies out of Washington, DC, would cause many federal workers to voluntarily leave, helping the new Trump administration thin out the federal workforce ranks and save the government money.
Ending remote work across government is being considered a potential “early candidate” for executive orders that members of DOGE will recommend to Trump, the source said. “It’s definitely on the table,” the source said, though it’s unclear how much they believe this will save the federal government.
Currently, not all federal workers are required to be in the office five days a week. Each agency determines its remote policy to best complete its mission. There are 1.3 million federal workers approved for telework, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. Government data shows teleworking federal workers spend 60% of their time performing work in person.
“The implication that federal employees writ large are not working in-person is simply not backed up by data and reality,” Everett Kelley, national president for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents more than 800,000 federal workers, told CNN in a statement. “When it comes to changes in working conditions that could impact union contracts, AFGE takes the position that such changes must be negotiated with the union through the normal collective bargaining process.”
Sources also told CNN that conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk – who has grown close with Musk – is expected to serve as an unofficial adviser to DOGE. Kirk has taken aim at remote work, calling it “one giant looting operation and US taxpayers are their mask” on X on Monday, another sign this could be a key early priority. --->READ MORE HERE
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