Trump versus the federal workforce, part two
By
Joseph Lawler
November 15, 2024 6:15 am
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President-elect Donald Trump, returning to office on a pledge to root out the “deep state” of unelected bureaucrats that thwarted his first-term agenda, has better prospects of exerting greater control over the civil service than he does cutting its size.
On the campaign trail, he frequently criticized the federal bureaucracy as beyond the control of the president.
Accordingly, at the top of his agenda is a plan to extend the president’s control over career bureaucrats and impose new standards on civil servants.
Relatedly, he has called for reducing the government’s footprint and downsizing agencies — up to eliminating the Department of Education. Trump has said he would create a government efficiency program to limit spending and bloat, to be headed by the world’s richest man, the entrepreneur Elon Musk. Musk has suggested that, with his counsel, Trump could cut around $2 trillion in spending. That would be about 30% of fiscal 2024 total spending.
Musk has had success in the private sector in reducing headcounts. He has said that he has cut about 80% of the staff of X after buying the platform.
Yet reducing the number of federal employees is a different proposition altogether.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine-features/3224546/donald-trump-versus-federal-workforce-part-two/
