So far, Donald Trump has targeted the following federal agencies for sweeping layoffs:
- USAID
- National Park Service
- CIA
- FBI
- National Science Foundation
- NOAA?
The FBI is straight-up revenge. NOAA appears to be motivated by a belief that if you get rid of the agency that monitors climate change, then climate change will cease to exist.
The others are harder to suss out. Summer workers at national parks? Research boffins at the NSF? The CIA? And of course, the jihad against USAID, which becomes more inexplicable the longer it plays out.
I suppose this all legal unless Congress sets explicit staffing levels. But it's not going to save much money. Trump has no plans to slash staffing at Defense, the VA, or Homeland Security, and the entire rest of the government accounts for about $100 billion in compensation costs (wages plus benefits). If you lay off 5% of the workforce, which is a lot, you'd save about $5 billion per year. This is roughly five hour's worth of federal spending.
If this staffing really is wasteful, then fine. Cut away. But it's just not what the government spends its money on. That would be defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, social welfare, and interest on the debt. If you don't take those on, you're not cutting spending. You're just showboating.
And don't forget contractors. They are a common Republican scam. You hire contractors who don't have the same protections as civil service and get paid less, but cost the government more because Profit to the contractors employers.
They won't cut them because it would impact Trump's patrons.
Trump and Musk have NO interest in saving money or cutting the budget. And firing people won't cut the budget anyway. Allocated money must be spent.
They want to destroy the government, make it ineffective, and then staff it with sycophants who will owe their jobs to dear leader and be ultra loyal to him.