The unintended consequences of Trump’s firing spree

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. At Veterans Affairs facilities in Detroit and Denver, staff reductions have led to canceled health programs and left homeless veterans without their dedicated coordinator to help them find an apartment and line up a deposit. In Alabama, job cuts at the Education Department have slowed efforts to get disabled children access to classrooms.

And in California, Yosemite National Park paused new reservations for more than 500 campsites during peak summer months because of staffing uncertainty. An unprecedented effort to shrink the federal labor force is impeding work at government sites across the country and spawning unintended consequences for services Americans rely on. The U.S.

government is America’s largest employer, with 2.4 million civilian workers as of January, excluding the postal service. The Trump administration has started cutting tens of thousands of jobs through a plan encouraged by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that aims to reduce the size of government by $1 trillion this fiscal year, roughly 15% of last year’s spending. The goal is to cull a workforce that President Trump has said includes many people who aren’t doing their jobs.

Oxford Economics, a data provider and consulting firm, estimates there will be 200,000 fewer federal workers by the end of 2025. In the private sector, employment attorneys say, major companies can spend months analyzing workers’ job performance, position and skills before making big cuts. They enlist senior leaders to recommend which workers to keep, pore over union rules and smooth the process of applying for unemployment benefits for fired workers.