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12:05 11.02.2025 •
Donald Trump went into the presidential election vowing to dismantle what he calls the "deep state." Now the deep state is (politely) fighting back, writes ‘Newsweek’.
Multiple federal government employees, all but one of them speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their jobs, have told Newsweek that they are living in fear but will ignore any instructions from the White House they deem unlawful — and they are determined not to sacrifice their jobs simply because of the pressure.
They said morale had cratered since Trump was inaugurated on January 20, ushering in a wave of policies such as a bid to end remote work and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. One described the atmosphere as "demoralizing and chaotic."
Nor is Trump their only target. Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO who leads the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was also singled out for driving what the employees see as a threatening and counterproductive agenda.
It is not known how many employees have joined this informal movement. But many have turned to the 278,000-strong r/fednews Reddit page, described as a safe space for federal employees, to express anger, dismay and sadness over the administration's policies.
They shun traditional symbols of resistance. Instead they unite around a more unlikely flag, emblazoned with an image of a star, a stapler and the motto "Come and take it" — a play on campaigns against gun control. Another widely shared slogan proclaims: "Hold the line. Do not resign." One popular post repeated that slogan and noted that "we made an oath to protect the constitution from threats, both foreign and domestic."
Trump and his supporters say the deep state consists of progressive-leaning federal government employees who continue to wield substantial power regardless of who controls the White House and Congress. They say that spending is too high and federal agencies need to be more responsive to the public's needs to restore trust in government.
Among such supporters is Senator Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana. "The American people overwhelmingly voted for President Trump in part because of his promise to root out government waste and bring common sense back to the White House," Banks told NBC News. "With a $36 trillion national debt, I welcome his administration working to ensure every tax dollar is spent responsibly on the agenda he promised."
During Trump's first term in office it was widely reported that some federal employees were seeking to undermine his agenda by slow walking or outright ignoring White House dictates. A report by the conservative America First Policy Institute published last month concluded that a "significant minority" of federal employees actively sought to undermine Trump's agenda during this time, using tactics such as failing to inform political appointees about key developments and producing "legally unusable" policy drafts.
Following Trump's inauguration on January 20, the White House wrote to government agencies instructing them to "take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements," while many federal workers were offered eight months' pay if they agreed to resign from their jobs by February 6. Trump also said he would purge over 1,000 Biden appointees from the federal government "who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again."
Musk has indicated he would like to cut federal spending by "at least $2 trillion."
Such pronouncements have not been well received by the federal employees who spoke to Newsweek.
One, who said they'd worked for the Interior Department and its bureaus for nearly 30 years, described morale as "the worst I've ever seen in the federal government."
Another federal worker, employed by the Department of Health & Human Services in the Midwest, echoed such sentiments.
"The general mood is one of anxiety, distrust, and siege," they said.
"We've always felt undervalued, sometimes thankless, but now, I'd say it's shifted to being targeted. The Elon Fork in the Road email seems to be a quasi legal coercion or warning for an empty, unbanked promise..."
"A Fork in the Road" was the title of an email sent to over 2 million federal workers by the Office of Personnel Management. It gave them the chance to resign in exchange for about eight months' pay. The administration expected 5 to 10 percent of employees to accept the offer.
Part of federal workers' resistance to Trump is simply to stay in their jobs despite the pressure.
One Veterans Health Administration employee from the southeast described morale as "very low," adding: "We are being told we are lazy and incompetent, and Trump is turning the general public against us, even though we are regular people with jobs just like them. It's demoralizing and chaotic, which I fear is exactly what he wants."
A Veterans Affairs (VA) Department employee, who specializes in mental health, said: "The current administration's targeting of federal employees is causing high levels of stress and making it harder for us to focus on doing our job, which is to take care of veterans. We help veterans struggling with mental health issues, including suicidal thoughts, PTSD, anxiety and depression."
Work in federal agencies can be relatively well paid, as Trump's supporters have pointed out. The average salary in the U.S. is $66,622, according to the Social Security Administration. A Newsweek analysis last year found many federal agencies have average salaries in the six figures.
Leading these is the Securities and Exchange Commission, tasked with regulating the financial industry, which has an average salary at $213,844, according to the personnel office. It employees just under 5,000 people.
Department of Agriculture employees are the lowest paid of major federal agencies. Its more than 92,000 workers make an average of $86,425 per year.
Pay isn't everything, federal workers indicated to Newsweek. Several said that their first duty was to the Constitution, and suggested they would ignore orders they believe are unlawful.
One employee working for a federal agency in New England said: "Federal employees have the right to disobey unlawful orders because we have to uphold the Constitution...We take our oaths serious. The same oath Congress takes. We love our country. We believe in our missions."
A United States Citizenship and Immigration Services employee, based out of Maryland, said: "I swore an oath to the Constitution, not the President. As Lincoln stated, this government is 'of the people, by the people, for the people.' This Administration needs to be reminded of that. We serve the American people, not the President."
Another Department of Defense worker said they were "dealing with a lot of stress" because they are transgender and "definitely p***ed off at the new administration." However, they said: "There's a pretty strong sense of solidarity among federal workers, and that extends up and down the chain of command."
Trump has also instructed the Pentagon to review policies likely to lead to barring transgender individuals from military service and signed another order to define sex strictly as male or female.
Senior Trump administration officials continue to insist radical federal government reform is needed. "The sheer magnitude of government waste is staggering to behold!" Musk said.
The number of federal employees has been steadily growing since the summer of 2022, though it peaked in 1990, when there were more than 3.4 million, according to the St. Louis Fed.
According to Treasury Department figures, in the 2022 fiscal year the federal government spent a total of $6.75 trillion. Thus achieving Musk's desired 2 trillion spending reduction will require radical cuts, leading to further tension between the Trump administration and critics in the federal government.
…Washington brawl increasingly violent as intelligence officers attack Trump's policies. The agents are fearful that the Trump-led Justice Department will exact punishment against employees deemed disloyal, POLITICO reports.
Two sets of FBI agents who worked on cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — as well as the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump — have filed lawsuits to block Justice Department leadership from assembling lists of agents they say will be used as part of a retaliation campaign.
The agents, who brought the federal suits anonymously, say they’re fearful that Justice Department leadership intends to publicly identify them and make them targets of threats and harassment. One suit, brought by the FBI Agents Association, points to calls by Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio to punish an FBI agent involved in his seditious conspiracy prosecution related to the Jan. 6 attack.
“This bell cannot be unrung, and once the Plaintiffs’ personal information is released it will be eternally available on social media,” attorneys for the unnamed agents argue in the suit.
The second suit, filed by the Center for Employment Justice, included screenshots of a three-page survey they say DOJ leadership intends to use to identify thousands of agents who worked on the politically sensitive cases.
“Plaintiffs legitimately fear that the information being compiled will be accessed by persons who are not authorized to have access to it,” they argue. “Plaintiffs further assert that even if they are not targeted for termination, they may face other retaliatory acts such as demotion, denial of job opportunities or denial of promotions in the future.”
The suits were filed in federal court in Washington around the same time as a deadline the Justice Department set for the FBI to identify all its personnel who worked on Jan. 6-related cases or investigations. It’s unclear what DOJ officials plan to do with the names, but some prosecutors and FBI leaders deemed untrustworthy by Trump appointees have already been fired.
The lawsuits, which claim violations of First Amendment rights and of the federal Privacy Act, ask to bar the Justice Department from aggregating and disseminating the identities of FBI agents and employees that could tie them to the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.
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