WASHINGTON — For the last two weeks, federal workers have been swept up in chaos and fear as President Donald Trump barrels ahead with his plans to purge civil servants from the U.S. government and potentially replace them with loyalists.
Trump has already fired or sidelined at least 17 inspectors general, more than a dozen federal prosecutors, national security employees, career diplomats and dozens of senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the civilian foreign aid agency that billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump ally who is not an elected official, claims he can close down permanently despite the lack of a clear legal path to do so.
Beyond that, the president is actively trying to root out and terminate federal workers who have any connections to diversity, equity and inclusion programs — to the point where people are being incentivized to rat each other out if they suspect a colleague may be hiding their work on these issues.
At the Department of Education, for example, at least 60 employees have already been put on leave and lost access to their emails because they previously attended one diversity training.
If that’s not stressful enough, the Trump administration has been pressuring millions of federal employees to agree to a so-called “buyout,” a vaguely written offer of months of pay in exchange for quitting their jobs.
Anxiety and confusion are clearly high across government agencies. But federal workers say something else is bubbling up, too: resistance.
HuffPost talked to more than a dozen civil servants across eight federal agencies about what they’re experiencing internally, what the mood is like and how people are responding to Trump’s efforts to force them all out. A clear theme that emerged is that while these employees are scared, they’re also mad. And they’re not going anywhere.
“Fuck that,” said one Environmental Protection Agency employee who, like everyone who spoke to HuffPost, spoke only on the condition of anonymity to protect their job.
People’s moods are changing “like every hour” because of the fear and uncertainty of what’s to come, the EPA staffer said. But some of Trump’s efforts to force people out are already backfiring, at least somewhat, like his mandate that all employees return to in-person work within 30 days — an effort to make people quit.
“Resistance Day!” this EPA employee said of the vibe at work one day last week, with everyone together again. “I was feeling so demoralized. But being in the office with everyone was so grounding. Ironically for the Trumpies, bringing us back to the office will make us stronger morale-wise.”
The Trump administration’s “buyout” offer also seems to be flopping, said some workers. On Jan. 28, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to more than 2 million federal employees with the subject line, “Fork in the Road,” offering to pay people through Sept. 30 with full pay and benefits in exchange for them quitting their jobs via a new “deferred resignation” program. The email’s subject line is the same message that Musk sent to Twitter employees after he acquired the company.
Many federal workers have recognized this as a scam. That’s partly because Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who represents lots of federal workers in his state, has been publicly warning people not to take it. It’s also because hundreds of thousands of federal workers are part of a strong union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), that’s been helping them navigate Trump’s rapid-fire actions.
The organization issued a detailed FAQ breaking down all the reasons the so-called “buyout” is not actually a buyout and is wholly unreliable and possibly illegal. And the union has offered federal employees a place to get answers to their questions together; a recent AFGE meeting brought together roughly 1,600 people, according to one attendee.
“I don’t know anybody who is taking this offer,” one federal scientist said of the deferred resignation pitch. “The buyout that’s not even real?”
Ironically, the “Fork in the Road” email that went out was also being flagged as a scam by the security system built into federal employees’ inboxes.
“We have a very clear email button for reporting phishing,” said a second EPA employee. “The amount of people who have reported this as phishing is very high. It reads, ‘scam.’ Literally, that ‘Fork in the Road’ email.”
This EPA staffer marveled at the volume of attorneys who likely received that email and could see how nonsensical it was ― a sign that, for all their threats and intimidation, at least some of the Trump administration is a sloppy mess.
“Whoever wrote that email really underestimated who they were sending it to,” this person said. “I very much feel like the general consensus is we are scared, but we are digging in.”
Several federal employees and their supporters have taken to the social media platform Reddit to connect and share their plans for fighting what is happening.
“This non ‘buyout’ really seems to have backfired,” reads one thread last week by an anonymous federal employee that drew lots of engagement. “I’ll be honest, before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out of this fresh hell. But now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible, [return to office] be damned.”
“Hold the line!” this person adds.
“I’ve been telling my coworkers to hold the line,” reads another thread by this federal employee, from a few days later. “So happy to see everyone here saying the same thing.”
To be sure, some federal workers are struggling with feeling helpless and demoralized. Some don’t know how they can fight back in their particular jobs and are worried that Trump is setting up the entirety of the government to fail by fueling mistrust and fear of retribution within its ranks.
“I am terrified,” said one Interior Department employee. “I want to speak up, for I know what is happening is wrong, yet I know if my protests reach the wrong ears I will be fired without hesitation and I have a family to provide for. Bosses are forced to enforce policies they deeply disagree with, but must or face further punishment for them and their teams.”
“I do not use this term lightly,” said this federal worker, “but it feels very fascist.”
That’s the sentiment shared by at least one State Department employee, who described messages from higher-ups instructing them to expose colleagues who they think may be working on DEI initiatives or otherwise “face adverse consequences.” This federal worker also discovered that at least one instructor of a routine departmental training was told they weren’t allowed to use the phrase “the Biden administration” or talk about the last four years at all.
“It is like 1984,” said this employee, referring to the dystopian novel by George Orwell about a fictional dictator who controls everything and constantly monitors people.
A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Defense Department employee, meanwhile, fumed about Trump’s “short-sighted and performative” decision to require all employees to return to in-person work.
“There are people I work with who do incredible work while working from home that will likely lose their job because of this. Some of them purchased a home and moved away based on this work agreement,” said this employee. “A 30-day grace period for such a significant change is a slap in the face to those who work hard.”
What’s especially ridiculous, this person said, is that federal office buildings outside of Washington, D.C., often don’t have enough desks, cubicles or shared work spaces to accommodate everyone returning to in-person work because these facilities have never been properly funded.
“Assuming all federal office buildings function like those in D.C. is insulting and infuriating,” said this Defense Department staffer.
“I do not use this term lightly, but it feels very fascist.”
– A federal employee at the Interior Department
Civil servants from across federal agencies, from NASA to the U.S. Navy to the National Park Service, also emphasized that a big reason they’re ready to fight Trump’s efforts to dismantle the government isn’t just because they need a job. They described their pride in working on something bigger than themselves and in taking an oath to the Constitution to serve their country.
“Not to be cheesy, but taking the oath of office really meant something to me,” said the previously mentioned federal scientist. “I feel like that obligates me to fight. I took an oath to the Constitution, to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“Elon’s emails are having the opposite effect on me than what was intended, like other [federal workers],” said an Education Department staffer. “Reinvested in my work.”
“It’s heartbreaking that we’re at the point where nothing is certain, where even the most basic rights are suddenly in question, and where so many people ― with good cause ― are simply too exhausted and overwhelmed to continue the fight,” said one Forest Service employee.
“There’s only one thing I am sure of ― that I will work towards the protection of nature in the [redacted] National Forest until my final breath,” said this employee.
Trump isn’t showing signs of relenting in his efforts to purge career civil servants. On Friday, perhaps identifying one of his biggest obstacles, he said he plans to nullify federal employee union contracts that agencies agreed to late in Biden’s term.
“Such last-minute, lame-duck [collective bargaining agreements], which purport to bind a new President to his predecessor’s policies, run counter to America’s system of democratic self-government,” Trump claimed, though he did not provide a clear legal justification for nullifying existing union contracts.
AFGE called the announcement yet another effort by Trump and Musk “to frighten and confuse” career federal employees.
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“Federal employees should know that approved union contracts are enforceable by law, and the president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to those agreements,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “AFGE members will not be intimidated. If our contracts are violated, we will aggressively defend them.”