President Trump announced on social media that the next phase of his government-gutting plan would be conducted with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet.”
So far, Mr. Trump and his jobs-cutting partner, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, have directed mass firings, prompting lawsuits and sowing confusion across multiple departments, agencies and programs. Agencies fired tens of thousands of probationary employees, ignoring personnel laws and what value they brought to the agency.
Mr. Trump said he met with “most of the Secretaries, Elon, and others” to discuss the next phase of reductions.
That phase, a so-called reduction in force, is a process that is extremely specific, deliberative and time consuming. These are done when an agency is restructured. Mr. Trump has ordered agencies to turn in their plans by March 13.
“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’”
“It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be,” he added, “but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people. We’re going to have these meetings every two weeks until that aspect of this very necessary job is done.”
Compared with total employment in the United States, the federal work force has been shrinking for decades. Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a think tank, described it as about the same size as in 1969.
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