Loyalty over law

Order stripped job protections from about 8,000 senior career officials (the former “Schedule F”)

About 8,000 positions (administration figure)

On June 3, 2026 Trump signed an executive order moving close to 8,000 career federal employees, about 97% of them at or above the GS-15 level, into a new “Schedule Policy/Career” category in which they can be removed, in the personnel director’s words, “effectively at-will.” Under the final rule issued in February 2026 they lose the right to appeal dismissals, and their whistleblower complaints go to their own agency’s general counsel instead of the independent Office of Special Counsel. The total is far below the 50,000 positions the government first estimated; about 94% of more than 40,000 public comments on the proposal opposed it, and the policy faces a lawsuit.

Their response: Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor: “You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at-will.” In February he said: “This is not about political appointments or terminations.”

Sources: Federal News Network (June 3, 2026) · Government Executive (Feb. 5, 2026)

Joint Chiefs chairman, Navy chief and the services’ top lawyers fired; Hegseth cited “roadblocks”

On Feb. 21, 2025 Trump fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, and Gen. James Slife, the Air Force vice chief. Hegseth also replaced the judge advocates general, the top uniformed lawyers who advise commanders on whether orders are lawful; the Army’s Lt. Gen. Joseph Berger and the Air Force’s Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer were fired. Hegseth told reporters on Feb. 24 the removals were needed because he did not want the lawyers to pose “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” No performance failing was cited for any of the officers.

Their response: Hegseth said the lawyers were not “well-suited” to give recommendations when lawful orders are given, and that officers would be reviewed “based on meritocracy.” Trump, announcing Brown’s replacement, called Brown “a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader.” A president may lawfully remove senior officers from their posts.

Sources: Associated Press via Yahoo News (Feb. 25, 2025) · Military.com (Feb. 24, 2025) · The Independent (Sept. 1, 2026)

The purge continued into wartime: Army chief removed, at least a dozen senior officers out by fall 2026

After the February 2025 firings, the Pentagon removed or pushed out the Air Force chief of staff, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Navy Reserve chief and the U.S. representative to NATO’s military committee, and announced the retirement of Adm. Alvin Holsey one year into a normally three-year tour at Southern Command, while he oversaw the strikes on alleged drug boats. On Sept. 30, 2025 almost 800 generals, admirals and senior enlisted leaders were ordered to Quantico, Virginia, where Trump told them the military would be used against “the enemy from within.” On April 2, 2026, a month into the Iran war, Hegseth removed the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, and three weeks later the head of the Navy. Reasons were seldom given; The Atlantic, as cited by The Independent in September 2026, reported that the military had fewer generals than at any point in recent history and that Trump himself was “surprised and concerned.”

Their response: Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell: “General Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation.” Of Holsey, Hegseth wrote: “The Department thanks Admiral Holsey for his decades of service to our country.” A senior administration official said of the Navy change: “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed.”

Sources: The Independent (Sept. 1, 2026) · Breaking Defense (April 2, 2026) · USNI News (Oct. 16, 2025) · NPR (Sept. 30, 2025)

Executive order put independent agencies under White House review and made Trump’s legal views binding

Executive Order 14215, signed Feb. 18, 2025, requires “so-called independent agencies”, expressly including the Federal Election Commission, to submit significant regulations to the White House for review, to install a White House liaison, and to accept spending restrictions set by the Office of Management and Budget “to advance the President’s policies and priorities.” Section 7 states that “The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties” and bars any executive branch employee from advancing a contrary interpretation as the position of the United States. The order exempts the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy but covers its supervision of banks.

Their response: The order’s stated rationale: independent regulatory agencies “currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people.”

Sources: White House, Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies (Feb. 18, 2025)

Election watchdog has lacked a quorum since the end of April 2025 and is down to two of six commissioners

2 of 6 seats filled (FEC website, Oct. 5, 2026)

The Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance law and needs four votes for any official action, lost its quorum on April 30, 2025: one Republican commissioner resigned in January, Trump removed Democratic chair Ellen Weintraub in February, and another Republican left at the end of his term. Trump, who alone can nominate replacements, had named no one as of mid-May 2025. A third Republican left in October 2025, and on Oct. 5, 2026, a month before the midterm elections, the commission’s website listed only two sitting commissioners, both Democrats. Without four votes the commission cannot decide enforcement cases, audits, regulations or advisory opinions; committees must still file disclosure reports and staff keep processing them.

Their response: No White House explanation for the unfilled seats was found. Weintraub says her removal was illegal. The commission also lacked a quorum for long stretches of 2019 and 2020, in Trump’s first term; OpenSecrets called the 2025 lapse “not an unprecedented situation.”

Sources: Federal Election Commission, All Commissioners (checked Oct. 5, 2026) · OpenSecrets (May 13, 2025) · Federal Election Commission, Leadership and structure

Federal job applications now ask how the applicant would advance the president’s executive orders

A May 29, 2025 hiring plan from the White House domestic policy chief and the Office of Personnel Management directs that every federal job announcement at grade GS-05 or above include four short essay questions. One reads: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.” The jobs covered are career civil service posts, not political appointments. Follow-up guidance of April 30, 2026 keeps the questions mandatory on announcements for GS-5 to GS-15 and senior professional positions while barring agencies from screening out applicants who do not answer.

Their response: OPM guidance of June 23, 2025 says answers “are not scored or rated”, that the questions “must not be used to impose an ideological litmus test on candidates”, and that responses “are not required.” The plan says candidates should be “committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”

Sources: OPM and White House Domestic Policy Council, Merit Hiring Plan memorandum (May 29, 2025) · OPM, additional guidance on the four short essay questions (June 23, 2025) · OPM, updated guidance on the four short essay questions (April 30, 2026)

317,000 federal workers left in 2025; a judge found 25,000 probationers were fired on a false pretense

317,000 departures in 2025 (personnel office count)

About 317,000 federal employees left the government in 2025 while 68,000 joined, according to the Office of Personnel Management director’s own count, which exceeded his target of 300,000; the figure counts all departures, voluntary and involuntary, and the report did not break it down. In mid-February 2025 the administration fired about 25,000 probationary employees, citing performance even for workers with outstanding reviews. Judges ordered them reinstated in March 2025, the Supreme Court paused those orders in April and the workers were fired again; in September 2025 a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the personnel office had unlawfully “directed agencies to fire under false pretense” and ordered records corrected, but did not order reinstatement.

Their response: OPM Director Scott Kupor wrote: “We want to make sure the government has the right talent focused on the key priorities of the administration and that we are eliminating wasteful taxpayer expenses in areas that are inefficient, no longer required, or in direct contradiction of administration priorities.”

Sources: Federal News Network (Nov. 26, 2025) · Federal News Network (Jan. 7, 2026)

CDC director fired a month after confirmation; she testified she refused to pre-approve vaccine changes

On Aug. 27, 2025 the White House fired Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about a month after the Senate confirmed her; four other senior CDC officials resigned. Monarez testified to a Senate committee on Sept. 17, 2025 that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had told her to accept in advance the recommendations of the vaccine advisory panel, all 17 of whose members he had replaced in June, and to fire career officials: “I would not commit to that, and I believe it is the true reason I was fired.” The firing is documented; the reason is her sworn account, which Kennedy disputes.

Their response: White House spokesman Kush Desai: “Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.” Kennedy denied telling her to accept recommendations without scientific evidence and testified: “I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No.’” On the advisory panel he said: “A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.”

Sources: The Guardian (Aug. 28, 2025) · ABC News via Yahoo News (Sept. 17, 2025) · NPR (June 9, 2025)

Trump adviser joined the Fed’s board while keeping his White House job on unpaid leave

The Senate confirmed Stephen Miran, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by 48 to 47 on Sept. 15, 2025, and he was sworn in the next day, in time to vote at that week’s interest rate meeting. He did not resign from the White House: he took unpaid leave from the council while sitting on the central bank the law makes independent of the president. His Fed term expired on Jan. 31, 2026 but he stayed on pending a successor, and he resigned the White House post only on Feb. 3, 2026, a day after Senate Democrats asked him to honor his confirmation pledge.

Their response: White House spokesman Kush Desai: “In accordance with the pledge he made to the Senate during his confirmation to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, Stephen Miran has submitted his resignation from the Council of Economic Advisers.” Miran had told senators he would resign from the council if his time at the Fed ran past January.

Sources: Federal Reserve Board press release (Sept. 16, 2025) · CNBC (Sept. 15, 2025) · CNBC (Feb. 3, 2026)

Nominee to run the whistleblower office withdrew after reported texts about a “Nazi streak”

In May 2025 Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia, a White House liaison to federal departments who had been admitted to the bar only the previous summer, to lead the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency that protects federal whistleblowers and enforces civil service law. On Oct. 20, 2025 Politico reported group-chat messages in which Ingrassia allegedly said he has “a Nazi streak” and that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “He’s not going to pass”, and Ingrassia withdrew on Oct. 21, writing that he did “not have enough Republican votes at this time.”

Their response: His lawyer, Edward Paltzik, told Politico the texts “could be manipulated or are being provided with material context omitted”, that if authentic “they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor”, and later that “we do not concede the authenticity of any of these purported messages.” Ingrassia said he “will continue to serve President Trump and this administration.”

Sources: CNN (Oct. 21, 2025)

FEMA and EPA employees who signed public dissent letters were put on leave, suspended or fired

On Aug. 26, 2025, a day after more than 180 current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency employees sent Congress a letter warning the agency could not handle a major disaster, some signers were placed on indefinite administrative leave, according to documents seen by the Associated Press, which confirmed at least two; 35 had signed by name and 141 anonymously. At the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 100 employees who publicly signed a mid-2025 “declaration of dissent” were suspended, and the agency later issued reprimands, unpaid suspensions and terminations. An EPA employment lawyer had warned leadership in an email that discipline “would present significant legal risk, as the letter is likely protected speech under the First Amendment.” Appeals were pending at the Merit Systems Protection Board in April 2026.

Their response: FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues: “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform. Change is always hard.” FEMA did not answer AP’s questions about whether the leave was tied to the letter.

Sources: AP via PBS News (Aug. 27, 2025) · Government Executive (Apr. 28, 2026)

FBI fired about 20 agents photographed kneeling at a 2020 protest; twelve sued

In late September 2025 the FBI fired roughly 20 agents who had been photographed kneeling during a June 2020 racial justice protest in Washington, three people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. Twelve of them sued in December 2025, saying they knelt to defuse a hostile crowd while outnumbered and without protective gear, and that Director Kash Patel fired them because they were seen as not politically aligned with Trump. These agents had not investigated Trump; the firings are part of the same wave that removed agents who had.

Their response: The bureau has generally declined to comment on personnel matters. The agents’ suit says the tactic worked: the crowds dispersed and no shots were fired.

Sources: The Guardian, carrying AP (Sept. 27, 2025) · The Guardian (Dec. 9, 2025)