Trump administration creates loophole to fire federal workers who refuse to be POTUS’ ‘political flunkies’

The Donald Trump administration on Thursday (Feb 5) unveiled sweeping changes to federal workforce rules that would make it easier to fire tens of thousands of government employees. At the centre of the shift is a new classification for federal workers that could affect roughly 50,000 senior career employees across agencies, nearly two per cent of the federal workforce.

A new category of federal workers

The changes were announced by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce. Under the new regulations, agencies can move employees in policy-influencing roles into a category called “Schedule Policy/Career.”

Unlike traditional civil service positions, these jobs will effectively become at-will roles, meaning workers can be dismissed more easily and with fewer protections than career employees have historically enjoyed.

In a 255-page rule explaining the change, the agency argued that supervisors have long struggled to discipline or remove workers accused of misconduct or poor performance. "Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduct."

The new classification, it argues, "will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting presidential directives." The regulation is expected to be formally published in the Federal Register this week.

Trump's campaign promise taking shape?

The policy, as per reports, can be traced back to an executive order signed by Donald Trump in January 2025 targeting "policy-influencing positions" across government agencies. Trump had attempted a similar overhaul at the end of his first term, but the order was reversed by the Biden administration.

Since returning to the office, Trump has pushed aggressively to shrink the federal bureaucracy. The White House says the changes are meant to improve accountability and ensure government agencies respond to elected leadership.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision, telling reporters that employees who fail to perform their duties or carry out administration policies should not remain in government roles. "I think if people aren't doing their jobs, if they aren't showing up for work, if they're not working hard on behalf of this president, they're not welcome to work for him at all," she said.

Fierce pushback from unions

Federal employee groups and labour unions reacted quickly and sharply. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, called the new rule "a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service."

AFGE president Everett Kelley, in a statement, warned that the changes could replace experienced public servants with "political flunkies", undermining the independence of the federal workforce. "When people see turmoil and controversy in Washington, they don't ask for more politics in government; they ask for competence and professionalism. OPM is doing the opposite," he noted.

Legal challenges are already being prepared. A coalition of advocacy groups represented by Democracy Forward said it plans to challenge the regulation in court, arguing it strips civil servants of longstanding protections.

"This is a deliberate attempt to do through regulation what the law does not allow—strip public servants of their rights and make it easier to fire them for political reasons and harm the American people through doing so," Democracy Forward chief Skye Perryman said in a statement.