Over 9,500 federal workers axed in Trump and Musk's efficiency drive

• Workers at interior, energy, agriculture, health departments sacked.
• Firing largely targeted probationary employees in their first year. 
• Federal govt is bloated and much money is lost to waste: Trump. 

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, backed by his adviser Elon Musk, intensified efforts to drastically reduce the US bureaucracy on Friday, dismissing over 9,500 federal employees responsible for duties ranging from overseeing public lands to providing care for military veterans.

Workers at the Departments of Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services had their employment terminated in a drive that so far has largely – but not exclusively – targeted probationary employees in their first year on the job who have fewer employment protections.

Some agencies have been essentially shuttered, such as the independent watchdog the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where cuts also hit workers on fixed-term contracts.

The tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service is preparing to fire thousands of workers next week, two people familiar with the matter said, a move that could squeeze resources ahead of Americans’ 15 April deadline to file income taxes.

The firings, reported by Reuters and other major US media outlets, are in addition to the roughly 75,000 workers who have taken a buyout that Trump and Musk have offered to get them to leave voluntarily, according to the White House. That equals about 3% of the 2.3 million-person civilian workforce.

Trump says the federal government is too bloated and too much money is lost to waste and fraud. The federal government has some $36 trillion in debt and ran a $1.8 trillion deficit last year, and there is bipartisan agreement on the need for reform.

But congressional Democrats say Trump is encroaching on the legislature’s constitutional authority over federal spending, even as his fellow Republicans who control majorities in both chambers of Congress have largely supported the moves.

Critics have questioned the blunt force approach of Musk, the world’s richest person, who has amassed extraordinary influence in Trump’s presidency.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday shrugged off those concerns, comparing Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to a financial audit.

“These are serious people, and they’re going from agency to agency, doing an audit, looking for best practices,” he told Fox Business Network.

Musk is relying on a coterie of young engineers with little government experience to manage his DOGE campaign, and their early cuts appear to be driven more by ideology than driving down costs.

‘I’ve been betrayed by my country’

Fired federal workers expressed shock.

“I’ve done a lot for my country and as a veteran who served his country, I feel like I’ve been betrayed by my country,” said Nick Gioia, who served in the Army and worked for the Department of Defence for a total of 17 years before joining the USDA’s Economic Research Service in December only to be fired late Thursday.

“I don’t feel like this has anything to do with federal workers, I feel like this is just a game,” said Gioia, who lives in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and has a child with epilepsy. “To sit here and watch people like Mr Musk tweet out how he feels like he’s doing a great job, he doesn’t realise what he’s doing to people’s lives.”

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees union, which represents more than 100,000 workers, said he expects Musk, whose SpaceX businesses has major contracts with the US federal government, and the Trump administration to concentrate on agencies that regulate industry and finance.

“That’s really what this whole thing is really all about,” Lenkart said. “It’s getting government out of the way of industry and incredibly rich people, which is why Elon Musk is so excited about this.”

Nuclear cuts ‘partly rescinded’

About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including 325 from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

But those layoffs have been “partly rescinded” to retain essential nuclear security workers, one of the sources said. It was unclear how many of the 325 firings were rescinded.

Another 2,300 employees were axed from the Interior Department, which manages 500 million acres of public lands, including more than 60 national parks, as well as the country’s on- and offshore oil and gas leasing programs, sources told Reuters.

An unknown number of workers at the Department of Agriculture were also shown the door, sources said.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is cutting nearly 1,300 workers, or one-third of its staff, the Associated Press reported.

The firings added to a round of cuts that has targeted departments including Veterans Affairs, Education, and the Small Business Administration.

Officials from the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees federal hiring, met with agencies on Thursday, advising them to lay off their recently hired employees who lacked full job protections, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The speed and breadth of Musk’s effort has produced growing frustration among some of Trump’s aides over a lack of coordination, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, sources told Reuters.

Lawsuits challenge Musk

In addition to the job reductions, Trump and Musk have tried to gut civil-service protections for career employees, frozen most of US foreign aid, and have attempted to shutter some government agencies such as the US Agency for International Development and the CFPB almost entirely.

Unions representing federal workers have sued to block the buyout plan.

Three federal judges overseeing privacy cases against DOGE will consider on Friday whether Musk’s team should have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at US health, consumer protection, and labour agencies.

Musk has sent DOGE members into at least 16 government agencies, where they have gained access to computer systems with personnel and financial information, and sent workers home.

The Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched an audit of the payment system’s security controls, according to a letter sent in response to a request by Democratic lawmakers.