Trump’s Plan for ‘Demolishing the Deep State’: Eliminating Civil Service Protections and Politicizing Federal Workforce

The former President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to “demolish the deep state” if he’s given another term in office during campaign rallies, a vow for war on federal government. His statements reflect his plans to transform its size and scope by eliminating civil service protections that have been around since 1883, making every executive branch employee fireable at will, moving as many as 100,00 positions out of Washington DC, dismantling or remaking entire departments such as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), and forcing senior career civil servants to pledge loyalty to him instead of serving in public interest. Trump’s plans would also eliminate independent commissions like Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission, disarming EPA by loosening or eliminating emissions and climate-change regulations. A close look at his prior efforts shows that if he wins again, these initiatives could debilitate large swaths of the federal government as they would eliminate or dismantle entire departments such as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI while making thousands of jobs subject to appointment based on political affiliation. Critics warn that Trump’s plans will hollow out and politicize the federal workforce, force out many experienced employees, open doors for corruption and a spoils system of political patronage leading to potential lawsuits in court like ones from whistleblowers at DOJ during his previous term when he tried pushing for indictments on people against him such as former FBI Director James Comey or former appointees he fired. Such concerns cross the political aisle, with Robert Shea, a senior OMB official under George W Bush and staunchly conservative Republican warning that hiring people based solely on personal political loyalties would produce “an army of suck-ups,” as it could destroy agencies such as Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after moving its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado. The BLM move pushed out hundreds of the bureau’s most experienced employees and sharply reduced diversity while relocating two USDA agencies to Kansas City led to a loss in expertise that had been built up over decades with more than half of black employees opting for retirement or quitting rather than moving. In contrast, Biden has moved to block such moves by adopting new rules meant to bar career civil service workers from being reclassified as political appointees or other types of at-will workers that would create “speed bumps” in a second Trump term while potentially leading to lawsuits in court.