Thousands of federal bureaucrats have survived the Donald Trump administration. Many people are not sure if they will or will survive even for a moment.
Politico spoke with more than a dozen civil servants, political appointees and recently retired Biden administration staffers under President Joe Biden in the days since Trump’s election was declared. , they were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic and the risk to the public. work. Many people will leave major federal agencies in the coming months, fearing that if they don’t show enough loyalty, the next president will eat into the federal budget, reverse policy direction, or target them individually. The company is preparing for a wave of people leaving the company. The result is expected to be a significant brain drain from the federal workforce, which President Trump may welcome.
“The last time President Trump was in office, we were all in survival mode, hoping for a doomsday,” said one State Department official. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel right now.”
The former president and his supporters have a deep distrust of the executive branch bureaucracy and the more than 2 million civil servants who staff it, and have launched an impeachment campaign to undermine the president during his first term. He blames the Federation’s “deep state” for promoting this. As president, Trump has been appointing political appointees to various agencies in an effort to clean up the house, and he will have another chance to nominate people to about 4,000 political positions across his administration. In 2021, his White House launched an effort to make it easier to fire civil servants and replace them with political appointees. he is expected to resume When he returned in January. He also Threatened to relocate thousands of federal jobs outside DC
Trump Vance transition press secretary Caroline Leavitt did not directly respond to questions about the future of federal employees, writing in an email that “President-elect Trump will soon begin determining who will serve in his second administration. I will.” Those decisions will be announced as soon as they are finalized. ”
President Trump’s policy agenda also conflicts with the core priorities of many government agencies under the Biden administration.
Several of Biden’s political appointees at the Department of Transportation headquarters near the Washington Navy Yard said the new Trump administration has reversed many of the efforts of the past four years, including consumer protections for airlines and major investments in infrastructure. I was disappointed at the prospect of trying to do so.
“There’s a lot of anxiety among Biden candidates like me who need to find new jobs, and concerns that President Trump is trying to eliminate career civil servants who had policy-making roles.” There’s also a lot of anxiety among career employees,” a DOT official told POLITICO.
“I’m happy because I’m going to retire soon. … The EPA is toast,” said an Environmental Protection Agency official whose agency’s efforts to combat climate change clash with President Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” approach to energy policy.
But many officials struggle with conflicting desires to stay in government and protect the mission of their agencies.
“Both administrations are doing everything in their power to make sure they do what is lawful,” said a Department of Homeland Security official at the law firm’s office. “If I leave, my successor will be an enabler.”
Alarm over President Trump’s return is particularly pronounced among national security officials, environmental officials, and federal health officials, who have called prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “out of control on health issues.” I am concerned that the next president will carry out that promise. ”
In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump reiterated that promise. “He’s going to help make America healthy again. … He wants to do some things and we’re going to let him do them,” Trump said.
On Wednesday, Kennedy appeared on radio and television. He said he would not call for a suspension of vaccinations..
Still, one current National Institutes of Health official said there is growing concern within the institute about the future of vaccine research under the incoming administration.
NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli appeared to allude to these concerns in an email sent to NIH staff on Wednesday, which was shared with POLITICO.
“As we approach Election Day 2024, we want to recognize that change can leave us feeling anxious,” she wrote.
“While we do not wish to deny these sentiments, we acknowledge that throughout the agency’s 137-year history, NIH’s mission has remained steadfast and its staff dedicated to the important work of biomedical research for the benefit of the public health. I would like everyone to remember that.”
A former Food and Drug Administration official told Politico on Wednesday that Kennedy’s claims that he would have significant influence over the health agency during President Trump’s second term led to him leaving the government agency responsible for drug oversight and food safety as a career employee. said that the risk of them retiring is increasing.
“Agency officials are concerned, especially in light of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments and his potential role in the agency. Agencies must grapple with that reality,” the former official said. said the person.
Another former FDA official said, “They’re worried. They’ve been through the transition before, so they clearly understand how to do it, but they’re reading the news, just like you and me.” he said. “I think a lot of it is RFK-driven.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials are also concerned that under President Trump, the public health agency, which is the centerpiece of the coronavirus response, has a “target on its back,” an agency official said. Ta.
Republicans have outlined clear plans for changes to the CDC, including the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which includes an ambition to split the agency in two. (The Trump campaign insists that Project 2025 is not official policy.) And many conservatives Including President Trump’s former FDA chief.argue that the CDC should narrow its scope and focus primarily on disease control.
“What’s very clear is that President Trump was completely unprepared in 2016, but now he has a plan in place and public health is right in the middle of it,” the official said. .
A national security analyst who recently left the Biden administration shared similar concerns, saying many civil servants who went through the previous Trump administration are more wary about working in a second administration.
“People are sad, they’re scared, and what’s worse is they know what’s going to happen this time. It’s not theoretical. It’s real,” the analyst said.
“It is difficult to overstate how targeted career employees will be, especially in state government. There will be no respite,” they said.
Not everyone shared that bleak outlook. “We haven’t really seen any disruption yet. It may happen by the time the transition begins in earnest, but the people I’ve talked to say that a Trump victory means that Trump’s policies will be carried out. “That seems like a pretty level-headed take on it,” said another State Department official. “If people disagree with these policies, no one will hold anything back against those who choose to leave.”
A Department of Health and Human Services official who has worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations told POLITICO that while individual employees are panicking about the election results, that’s the general mood at the office this week. Please keep working. that’s reality. “
She’s trying to find a glimmer of hope in the Trump administration’s mixed record on health care.
“Sometimes there are strange synergies,” she says. “Scott Gottlieb has been a very strong tobacco control advocate, as he was under the first Trump administration, and the Center for Tobacco Products has actually been able to do more than what it could have done under the Obama administration.”
“So I ask myself: Is there a way to work with people I disagree with and despise?”
Michael Doyle, Kevin Bogardus and Hannah Northey contributed to this report.
