President Donald Trump is overwhelming the political system in his attempt to bend the United States to his will, causing chaos in broad sectors of the federal bureaucracy and leaving the opposition overwhelmed by the scope of his measures.
The White House offered compensations to federal workers who did not want to end their remote contracts on Tuesday night, but the lack of clarity wreaked havoc on key programs, leaving the status of potentially billions of dollars in payments up in the air.
The announcement followed measures to fire federal workers in diversity, equity, and inclusion roles, as well as Justice Department officials who investigated Trump and more than a dozen inspectors general.
The administration has its sights set on the government's human resources agency, the Office of Personnel Management, to install its allies in Washington. The interim director of that entity, Charles Ezell, ordered the submission of lists of easy-to-fire employees who are still in their probationary period.
Scales, the new chief of staff of the entity, recently worked at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI.
Some critics, like Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut, have expressed concern, noting that Trump is trying to undermine the country's democracy and possibly its economy in an attempt to take control.
The federal government employs over 3 million people, making it the 15th largest workforce in the country. Aggressive additional cuts to the federal workforce have been warned, which could lead to the exit of a large number of workers from important sectors such as health, loans, and military procurement.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, alongside his Democratic counterpart Dick Durbin, has asked Trump to justify the firings of inspectors general, as required by law.
In general, the average tenure of a federal employee is nearly 12 years, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center of data from the Office of Personnel Management. However, it is unclear if Congress can do more to hold accountable amid these controversial measures.
