March 18, 2025 by Herb Booker
The Trump/Musk/Vance administration has been in the process of firing thousands of federal employees for the last several weeks from several agencies under the guise of eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. The question I have is that I am not so sure that the ultimate goal is the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse, or is it just an excuse to kneecap government agencies while inflicting pain on federal employees. It may also be the prelude to privatization of agencies such USPS or VA, or simply just shutting down government agencies, which has been stated as a goal for agencies such as USAID and DOE.
Make no mistake about it, Musk and his Department of Government deficiency (DOGE), which purportedly consists of several employees from the ages of 19 to 25, is driving all of the firings of federal employees. Unfortunately, the firings do not seem to follow a strategic plan and appear to be rather ham handed. It’s basically like DOGE is attempting to shave with an axe.
There have been instances of several government agencies being required to rehire large numbers of employees because they fired too many employees. In a new twist on Thursday of this week, two federal judges ordered federal agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of probationary workers who had been fired as part of President Trump’s plan to shrink the federal workforce. There are a total of 19 federal agencies required to rehire probationary employees.
There is one lingering question that I have. There seems to be a strange phenomenon of many people on the right that seem to be overjoyed with the fact that thousands of federal employees are losing their jobs. There are instances of family members of federal employees telling the employee that they are happy with them losing their job. You would have to ask, why is there so much animosity toward federal employees? Maybe the fact that Donald Trump stated that federal employees don’t work at all, and many of them never showed up for work could be a factor?
I have a theory that there is a perception from the right that federal employees for the most part are leftists working as bureaucrats in Washington DC that are anti-Trump and making big salaries leeching off of taxpayers. The problem is that federal employees are deployed nationwide in all locales, and there are probably just as many Trump supporters fired as Democrats including veterans. This fact is very problematic for Republican lawmakers at their various town halls because they are basically being pummeled by voters in red districts. It has gotten to the point that Republican lawmakers are being asked to discontinue their town halls because it is a bad look.
Additionally, DEI is a factor in the overall plan to not only significantly reduce the federal employee head count, but to eliminate as many minorities in the employee head count as possible going forward. The federal government has always been seen as a pathway to the middle to upper middle class for many minorities especially Blacks, but has also been a boon for the handicapped, senior employees and white women, who have probably benefitted the most.
Qualified Black applicants for federal jobs could earn excellent salaries and benefits while providing an excellent lifestyle for their families if they attained an education and worked hard, essentially attaining the American dream. Unfortunately, this is a source of resentment for many on the left. Not everyone wants to see historically disparaged groups do well. The percentage of Blacks employed by the federal government is close to 20% versus 13% in the general U.S. population. The Trump administration is very aware of this fact!
What’s ironic is the fact that with all of the talk about DEI and hiring based on merit, there has been laws on the books for decades stipulating that the federal government can only hire based on merit. That would mean that every federal employee employed today was hired under a merit-based system. My problem is, as far as the federal government, why would DEI be an issue now if hiring is based on merit?
DEI is #1 on Donald Trump’s hit list as a concept that he wants to destroy as a means to disenfranchise both socially and economically Blacks and other minorities because as a whole, these minorities do not support Donald Trump politically. It is a means of sowing distrust and apprehension for minorities applying for positions in both the government and corporate sector, and a means of retribution for the President. Additionally, it is an attempt to effectively usher in the return of Jim Crow.
The anti-DEI rhetoric has reached epic levels in the Trump administration. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is probably Trump’s most enthusiastic anti-DEI cabinet member. Not only did he remove powerful women and Black individuals in high level positions at the DOD, he removed Black Air Force General CQ Brown Jr., who was the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Lisa Franchetti, who was Chief of Naval Operations and Linda Fagan, first female head of the Coast Guard.
It gets even worse. Thousands of images of mostly women and ethnic minorities have been flagged for deletion at the DOD. Included are pictures of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were segregated Black pilots that fought with distinction in WWII, and the Enola Gay, which was the first aircraft to drop the A-bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It appears that the image of the aircraft was flagged for deletion because “Gay” was part of the name. I can’t make this up!
All opinions herein are solely the opinion of Herb Booker. Comments are welcome, and can be sent to hbooker2@yahoo.com, or at the bottom of the page. Next week, “Tariffs and Trade Wars”.