Former President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping move to overhaul the federal workforce, initiating the reclassification of up to 50,000 government employees under a controversial category known as Schedule F — a central pillar of the conservative Project 2025 blueprint that outlines his second-term governance strategy.
Announced online and soon to be formalized in the Federal Register, Trump’s executive action sets the stage for converting thousands of civil service positions into at-will appointments, drastically reducing job protections and giving the administration broader authority to dismiss employees viewed as resistant to the president’s agenda.
“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’”
The policy, first introduced in late 2020 but rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021, aims to target those with “important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties,” according to a White House fact sheet released alongside the announcement. Trump signed a second executive order on Inauguration Day in January, effectively reversing Biden’s safeguards and paving the way for this latest step.
mounting backlash from unions, legal experts
Labor groups and civil service advocates have expressed alarm over the move, calling it an attempt to politicize the federal government and dismantle its merit-based hiring protections.
“President Trump’s action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government’s merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Kevin Owen, a legal representative for federal employees, warned that reclassified workers would also lose critical whistleblower protections. “It’s going to have a complete chilling effect,” he said.
The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees government hiring, defended the policy as necessary to “strengthen accountability” and streamline removals for poor performance or misconduct. “Americans deserve a government that is both effective and accountable,” said OPM’s acting director, Chuck Ezell.
deepening control over government machinery
The reinstatement of Schedule F is seen as a critical mechanism in Trump’s effort to confront what he terms “the deep state” — career officials and civil servants whom he believes obstructed his first-term policy objectives. Now, emboldened by his return to power, Trump is moving more swiftly to restructure the bureaucracy and assert greater loyalty within the federal ranks.
Project 2025, the nearly 1,000-page conservative policy manual developed by the Heritage Foundation and former Trump aides, calls for the mass dismissal of ideologically misaligned federal workers and their replacement with loyalists aligned with Trump’s vision.
During Biden’s term, the OPM had enacted measures to make it more difficult for future presidents to reintroduce Schedule F, in an effort to “Trump-proof” the civil service. Those efforts are now being reversed.
According to OPM’s latest clarification, newly reclassified positions will still be filled based on merit but will no longer be shielded by traditional appeal processes, making them far more vulnerable to political dismissal.
As the policy heads toward finalization, Trump has pledged to issue another executive order to complete the process potentially reshaping the American federal bureaucracy for years to come.
