200,000 Layoffs

Plus: Possible quid pro quo between the DOJ and Eric Adams, DEI in the federal government, and more...

The culling within the federal government: Mass layoffs have begun, with most of the some 200,000 probationary employees expected to be terminated in the coming days, mostly from the departments of Energy and Veteran Affairs, but also some from the Small Business Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture (specifically the Forest Service), and—ironically—the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which has been overseeing the layoffs.

Probationary employees tend to be workers who have only been in their jobs for a year or under (or two years in some cases). They have the fewest job protections so they tend to be the easiest to fire.

"These firings are not about poor performance—there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants," said government employee union president Everett Kelley in a statement. "They are about gutting the federal government, silencing workers, and forcing agencies into submission to a radical agenda that prioritizes cronyism over competence." The last two weeks have seen online hysterics, protests outside of federal buildings, and lots of lawsuits filed or threatened by unions representing the employees.

The OPM has apparently dispensed shifting guidance, reportedly telling agencies earlier this week that they should focus on terminating underperforming employees before later in the week shifting to a policy that all or most probationary employees should be dismissed. Some of the agency's own employees were allegedly dismissed via a Microsoft Teams call, per their union, the American Federation of Government Employees. Around 100 people were dismissed at once via that call, with their video and speaking capabilities muted, and were told to leave the building within the hour.

Meanwhile, roughly 77,000 workers have availed themselves of the buyouts offered to them. This is all, of course, part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), helmed by Elon Musk, which is focused on trimming the federal bureaucracy down to size.

Though I'm supportive of DOGE, there is a certain haphazard nature to these firings that leaves me wondering if they'll result in the desired outcome. For example, some 3,400 workers within the Forest Service were eliminated. But some of those workers were those who specifically work on wildfire management, per Politico, which seems useful, especially when specific states—LOOKING AT YOU, CALIFORNIA—have historically abdicated their responsibility to do so, and/or have vast swaths of federal land within their boundaries (in California, for example, 20 million acres are managed by the Forest Service). (To be fair to pretty boy Gov. Gavin Newsom, though it pains me to do so, California has upped its number of controlled burns in a major way over the last few years, recognizing the necessity of such management techniques.) Still, other laid-off employees were focused on trail improvements at hiking spots and watershed restoration, which seems like something that ought to be supported by nonprofits (or even private companies), not the federal government; in many agencies, it's a mixed bag of seemingly useful functions being cut along with vast amounts of excess.

"It's stripping out, likely, a whole new generation of talent for our government," Max Stier, president of Partnership for Public Service, told The Washington Post. Ha. Look, I'm sure there were some bright and competent government employees who were let go, but there are fundamental incentives issues within the federal government that mean lots of people perform useless jobs at redundant agencies, and perform them for life—on our dime. Well past time to reevaluate this status quo.

A tangent about fires: For those who care about the Forest Service, they interestingly paused doing prescribed burns in California in 2024…which many say is at least partially to blame for the devastating Los Angeles area fires we saw last month. But only the Eaton fire was on federal land, and it's not clear that controlled burns performed by the Forest Service would've actually done much. Still, it's a terrible policy shift that raises questions about the Forest Service's competence. Even the greatest government skeptics can admit that some amount of wildfire-risk mitigation needs to happen if California wants to avoid this cyclical destruction that's becoming routine.

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Scenes from New York: "Manhattan's U.S. attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City's mayor, Eric Adams," reports The New York Times. "Then, when Justice Department officials transferred the case to the public integrity section in Washington, which oversees corruption prosecutions, the two men who led that unit also resigned," followed by three more a few hours later. The agency had used a blatantly political justification for its decision to drop the case, with acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove saying Adams needed to be available to cooperate with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in New York and claiming the corruption investigation into Adams' conduct was politically motivated.

Danielle Sassoon, the Manhattan U.S. attorney who has now resigned, is a member of the conservative Federalist Society and a former clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (an experience she wrote about here, calling Scalia "a mentor and a mensch"). "I understand my duty as a prosecutor to mean enforcing the law impartially, and that includes prosecuting a validly returned indictment regardless whether its dismissal would be politically advantageous, to the defendant or to those who appointed me," Sassoon wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi dated February 12.

"It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams's opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment," she continued. Sassoon characterized a meeting she attended with Bove and Adams' lawyers as one in which "Adams' attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed."

Sassoon continued: "Mr. Bove admonished a member of [Sassoon's] team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion."

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QUICK HITS

• Is diversity, equity, and inclusion over? We chatted with the illustrious Aaron Sibarium (who gets a ton of great scoops and is worth a Twitter follow) about Donald Trump's efforts to root out wokeness in the federal government.

• Should we understand Trump's tariffs as symbolic? As foreign policy instruments? As executive whims?
• Apple and Google are restoring TikTok to their app stores following noises made by the new attorney general signaling that the Chinese-owned social media ban won't be enforced.
• New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "told almost 50 of Ukraine's Western backers on Wednesday that he had joined their meeting 'to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,'" per the Associated Press. "The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must—and we are—focusing on security of our own borders," he continued, saying that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO, should not expect to get all of its land back from Russia, and that no American troops will be used in Ukraine as part of a peace process or security guarantee. (For good reading on what should happen after the war, read Reason's Matt Welch.)
• The state of Waymo (autonomous vehicles) in Phoenix, Arizona.
• J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon dressed down his employees over remote work and laziness:

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In leaked audio, Jamie Dimon takes his employees, especially the younger ones, to the woodshed over their desire to keep "working" remotely.
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— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) February 14, 2025