‘Fuck That’: Federal Workers Say They’re Scared But ‘Digging In’ Amid Trump’s Chaos

“Ironically for the Trumpies, bringing us back to the office will make us stronger morale-wise,” said one EPA employee as Trump vowed to purge civil servants.

WASHINGTON — For the last two weeks, federal workers have been swept up in chaos and fear as President Donald Trump barrels ahead with his plans to purge civil servants from the U.S. government and potentially replace them with loyalists.

Trump has already fired or sidelined at least 17 inspectors general, more than a dozen federal prosecutors, national security employees, career diplomats and dozens of senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the civilian foreign aid agency that billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump ally who is not an elected official, claims he can close down permanently despite the lack of a clear legal path to do so.

Beyond that, the president is actively trying to root out and terminate federal workers who have any connections to diversity, equity and inclusion programs — to the point where people are being incentivized to rat each other out if they suspect a colleague may be hiding their work on these issues.

At the Department of Education, for example, at least 60 employees have already been put on leave and lost access to their emails because they previously attended one diversity training.

If that’s not stressful enough, the Trump administration has been pressuring millions of federal employees to agree to a so-called “buyout,” a vaguely written offer of months of pay in exchange for quitting their jobs.