Reuters said that the job losses come from many important agencies such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and Human Services, causing a shakeup in the federal administrative system.
According to Reuters, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Previously, about 75,000 government employees had received offers to buy back contracts to leave their positions, bringing the total number of affected workers to about 3% of the 2.3 million federal civil servants.
Mr. Trump has long declared the government apparatus to be too cumbersome and wasteful of budget. With public debt reaching 36,000 billion USD and a budget deficit of 1.8 trillion USD in the past year, spending cuts have received certain support. However, Democrats accused Trump of violating Congress's budget control, despite the Republican Party - which holds the majority - largely siding with him.
Reuters also revealed that the speed and scale of the Elon Musk-led personnel streamlining campaign are causing internal conflict. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is said to be increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of coordination in the implementation of the plan.
In addition to laying off employees, Trump and Musk have amended federal civil servant protection regulations, frozen much of foreign aid and narrowed or even closed agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Nearly half of the probationary employees at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been laid off.
The US Department of Forestry cuts 3,400 newly recruited employees. The National Park laid off 1,000 employees.
The Tax Department (IRS) is expected to lay off thousands of people next week, raising concerns about paying taxes before the April 15 deadline.
The forest fire relief program has been suspended, preventing seasonal firefighting recruitment, despite Los Angeles suffering a terrible forest fire.
Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been criticized for using a group of young engineers with limited government experience to make decisions on dismissal. Budget experts say that this plan is more systematic than really helping to reduce spending.
Many federal employees who lost their jobs were shocked. Nick Gioia, a veteran who served in the army and worked for the Department of Defense for 17 years before joining the Department of Agriculture in December, was sacked on February 13.
"I have contributed to my country and now I feel betrayed. This is not a federal employee issue, it is just a political game" - Gioia shared. He was even more worried when he had a child with Enteroscopy that needed care.
Steve Lenkart, managing director of the National Federation of Labor (NFFE), said that Presidents Donald Trump and Musk will focus on cutting back agencies with the function of supervising the industrial and financial sectors.
