Massive federal layoffs: Nearly 10,000 workers fired as Donald Trump, Elon Musk step up assault on US agencies

Over 9,500 federal workers were laid off in a drive led by President Trump and advisor Elon Musk to reduce bureaucracy.

More than 9,500 workers who handle everything ranging from federal lands to military veterans care were fired on Friday as part of US President Donald Trump and his advisor Elon Musk's bid to cut down bureaucracy in America radically.

Donald Trump has entrusted Elon Musk's DOGE with cutting down the 'wast' of dollars by slashing government spending and increasing efficiency.(Bloomberg)

The employee termination drive has so far seen workers at the Departments of Interior, Energy, Veteran Affairs, Agriculture and Health and Human Services being targeted, with many of them, though not exclusively, being probationary staffers in their first year on the job and having lesser employment protections.

Some agencies have even been shut down in essence, including one as the independent watchdog the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where the cuts also affect the fixed-term contract workers.

Meanwhile, the tax-collector agency, Internal Revenue Service, is also preparing to lay off thousands of workers next week, Reuters reported citing two people familiar with the matter. This could be a move to squeeze resources ahead of the April 15 deadline for Americans to file income taxes.

Trump, Musk offer buyout option

According to the White House, the recent layoffs are in addition to the 75,000 workers who took up Trump and Musk on their buyout option to leave voluntarily. This is equivalent to about 3 per cent of the 2.3 million civilian workforce.

President Trump has said that the federal government is too deep in debt, saying that too much money has been lost to waste and fraud. There is some $36 trillion in debt along with a $1.8 trillion deficit last year, and there is a dual agreement on the need for reform in the federal government.

However, Congressional Democrats have said Trump is cutting in on the legislature's constitutional authority over government spending, even as his fellow Republicans, who have the majority in both the Congress chambers, have mostly backed his moves.

But questions are being raised over the world's richest person, Elon Musk's blunt force approach in this. Musk, the co-chair of Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) has achieved a fairly significant amount of influence in the latter's presidency.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, shrugged off such concerns on Friday and compared Musk's DOGE to a financial audit. Speaking to Fox Business Network, he said, "These are serious people, they're going from agency to agency, doing an audit, looking for best practices."

Musk's DOGE campaign is being managed by a team of young engineers who carry very little government experience, it appears that their early cuts are driven less by the motive of reducing costs and more by ideology.

Fired federal works left in shock

Several fired federal workers were left in shock as in the blink of an eye, they lost their jobs in this Trump and Musk-led campaign.

"I've done a lot for my country and as a veteran who served his country, I feel like I've been betrayed by my country," said Nick Gioia, who had served in the Army and worked for the Department of Defense for 17 years before joining the USDA's Economic Research Service in December only to be fired this week.

Gioia said that in his opinion, these layoffs don't have anything to do with federal workers, "I feel like this is just a game", adding that, "To sit here and watch people like Mr. Musk tweet out how he feels like he’s doing a great job, he doesn’t realize what he’s doing to people’s lives."

Steve Lenkart, the executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees union, which represents over 100,000 workers expressed his expectations from Musk, who has major contracts for SpaceX with the US federal government, and the Trump administration to keep their focus on agencies that regulate industry and finance. He said that this whole thing is about getting the government out of the way of industry and incredibly rich people, which is why "Elon Musk is so excited about this".

Musk under lawsuit fire

Trump and Musk have tried to reduce civil-service protections for career employees, frozen majority of the US foreign aid, tried to completely shut down federal agencies like the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the CFPB.

However, these plans have also sparked lawsuits against Musk. Unions of federal workers have counter-sued to block the buyout plan.

Three federal judges are likely to consider whether Musk's team should have access to the Treasury department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at the US health, consumer protection and labour agencies.

Several DOGE members have been sent into as many as 16 government agencies so far, with Musk's staffers gaining access to the computer holding personnel and financial information.

(with Reuters inputs)