AFGE has launched a new series, Chaos and Corruption Weekly Digest, to document chaos, corruption, and efforts to dismantle our democratic institutions by the Trump administration.
Week 6 saw an attack on civil rights and marked an escalation of President Trump’s authoritarian behavior that should alarm every American.
Trump and Elon Musk continued to fire federal workers, demeaning and harming fellow Americans. They told agencies to submit proposals for moving their offices out of Washington, D.C. They either closed civil rights offices or severely cut the programs.
To remove constraints on his power, Trump fired military leaders, including their top lawyers, and replaced them with people loyal to him the week before, prompting five former secretaries of defense to call for congressional hearings over concerns that he would use the military in illegal ways. The administration is also requiring undocumented immigrants to register themselves in a national database. The Holocaust didn’t start with the gas chamber but a series of actions starting with vilifying a certain group of people and creating registries for them.
Meanwhile, Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in taxpayers’ funding.
But the American people took notice, and protests took place nationwide. They packed town halls and congressional hearings. They filed lawsuits and took to the streets. To protest Trump and his oligarchy, American consumers across the country also refused to spend their money on major chain stores on Feb. 28 as a way to remind the billionaires of the people’s power. The economic blackout is a demonstration of public anger against corporate greed and the billionaires’ attack on diversity and inclusion.
Here’s a quick recap of Trump’s attacks in his 6th week in office and how these actions hurt federal workers and the American people they serve.
Feb. 24: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters the Feb. 21 removals of military leaders and top lawyers were done so that they wouldn’t pose any “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.”
Feb. 24: Trump continued his attack on veterans as the Department of Veterans Affairs axed another 1,400 probationary workers on top of the 1,000 probationary employees he had earlier fired. The VA has been severely short-staffed, and it takes months to fill positions and even longer to get new hires up to speed.
Feb. 25: In a show of courage and defiance, 21 public servants resigned from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rather than help Musk slash the federal workforce and “dismantle critical public services.” The employees warned those enlisted by DOGE to do its dirty work did not have skills or experience. The New York Times published a list of people who are helping DOGE undermine our government.
Feb. 25: Trump’s Social Security Administration (SSA) closed its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and put employees on administrative leave, continuing the administration’s war on women, minorities, people of color, LGBTQIA+, and people with disabilities.
Feb 25: Jonathan Kamens, the cybersecurity leader at the Department of Veteran Affairs who has been fired, warned that DOGE’s actions could lead to veterans’ health data being compromised.
Feb. 26: Trump directed agencies to start preparing for massive layoffs by submitting their reorganization plans by March 13.
Feb. 26: Trump told agencies they have until April 14 to submit plans to move their offices out of the Washington, D.C. region.
Feb. 27: Trump fired hundreds of weather forecasters and other employees on probationary status at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration across the country. This will affect everyone who relies on weather forecast, including air travelers and farmers. The following day, about 500 NOAA employees quit after taking the so-called deferred departure offer.
Feb. 27: Five former secretaries of defense serving both Republican and Democratic presidents, including one who served under Trump’s first term, urged Congress to immediately hold hearings to investigate Trump’s politization of the military and recent firings of the chairman of the joint chief of staff and other military leaders.
“Mr. Trump’s dismissals raise troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military and to remove legal constraints on the President’s power. We, like many Americans – including many troops – are therefore left to conclude that these leaders are being fired for purely partisan reasons,” they said in a letter to Congress.
Feb. 27: Trump’s Department of Labor is cutting by 90% of the workforce of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, effectively gutting the enforcement power of the contractor watchdog. The office has also worked to make sure these contractors end discrimination at their firms.
Feb. 27: In a victory for AFGE and probationary employees, a judge ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has no authority to fire employees at other agencies. The ruling is in response to AFGE’s lawsuit against Trump’s illegal mass firings of probationary employees.
Feb. 27: Trump directed agencies to provide data on official time, calling it “taxpayer-funded union time.” AFGE immediately shot back: “The memorandum stigmatizes something that is completely lawful and routine: federal employees’ elected representatives engaging in representation. Taxpayer-funded union time’ doesn’t exist — it is an anti-union buzzword used to distort and defame employee representatives executing their legal duties.”
Feb. 28: Trump’s Office of Personnel Management delayed its annual employee satisfaction survey and removed questions about diversity, equality, inclusion, accessibility, and gender ideology.
Feb. 28: Trump demoted prosecutors who worked on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases.
Feb. 28: Trump’s OPM sent federal employees a second email asking them to share their accomplishments from the previous week.
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