WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 President Donald Trump is preparing to make one of the controversial personnel changes laid out in the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for his second term.
He plans to reclassify 50,000 federal employees under what's known as Schedule F, which means they'll have less civil service protection. The proposal follows an executive order signed at the beginning of his term, and it's expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday afternoon.
Trump announced the move on social media before the rule was published Friday.
鈥淚f these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,鈥 he wrote on his Truth Social platform. 鈥淭his is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be 鈥榬un like a business.鈥欌
Administration officials argue that it鈥檚 necessary to increase accountability in the workforce. The change is expected to make it easier to replace career employees who have 鈥渋mportant policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties,鈥 according to a White House fact sheet. Details were first reported by Axios.
Once the rule is finalized, the president plans to sign another executive order to conclude the process.
It's the latest step in Trump's battle against what he describes as 鈥渢he deep state,鈥 which frustrated his goals in his first term. Now he's moving more swiftly to fire people and reshape the government bureaucracy, steps that have alarmed labor unions and political opponents who worry about him consolidating power and violating worker rights.
The fact sheet said the plan 鈥渆mpowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.鈥
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, criticized the move.
鈥淧resident Trump鈥檚 action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government鈥檚 merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on,鈥 he said in a statement.
