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The Trump administration is expected to announce Friday that it’s moving forward with a sweeping civil service overhaul known as “Schedule F,” which is designed to make it easier to purge federal employees who are considered an obstacle to the MAGA agenda.
According to Axios, the administration plans to strip civil service protections from about 2% of the federal workforce—about 50,000 employees, many of whom are involved in policymaking. Under Schedule F, they’d be reclassified as “at-will” workers, meaning they could be fired far more easily, especially if they’re seen as an obstruction to President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Trump aides told Axios that this change would give the White House more power to remove underperforming staff or, more revealingly, those who aren’t ideologically aligned with the president. It’s another step in Trump’s broader plan to reshape the federal government in his image. Just this week, the White House began revamping the National Security Council, stacking it with officials loyal to Trump’s far-right vision.
Schedule F fits neatly into that effort, advancing tech billionaire Elon Musk’s push to gut the federal workforce so only MAGA loyalists remain.
Currently, federal workers are protected by civil service rules that insulate them from political interference. But Trump has long raged against what he calls the “deep state,” signing an executive order on Day 1 to reinstate Schedule F—a classification that he created in 2020 and President Joe Biden rescinded in 2021.
That order said it was “essential for all” federal employees to be accountable to the president, with Schedule F framed as a way to “restore accountability.” But the underlying message was clear: Dissent will not be tolerated.
“In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership. Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service,” the order read.
Schedule F is a pillar of the far-right Project 2025 playbook, designed by key Trump allies like deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who are now driving this plan forward.
But like most things in the Trump administration, the rollout is already a mess.
Federal agencies are scrambling to figure out which positions qualify for reclassification, and experts warn the process is reckless and could hollow out parts of the government just as vital services are needed most.
Critics of the plan told Axios that the likely workforce cuts could destabilize critical programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They also warned it could derail education and research efforts.
Labor groups are sounding the alarm, too, calling Schedule F a Trojan horse for MAGA political patronage.
“Schedule F is a shameless attempt to politicize the federal workforce by replacing thousands of dedicated, qualified civil servants with political cronies,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Make no mistake, this isn’t about “streamlining” the government. It’s about consolidating power, punishing dissent, and turning federal service into a loyalty test. If it moves forward, the consequences could be enormous.
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