During the last months of Joe Biden as president, one of the government departments in charge of the conservation of natural spaces launched the Hiring prestigious experts to reinforce its staff and, after a long selection process, closed an agreement with several candidates. “They were very powerful people, we were excited,” says an official from the department in question. But then the elections came and unexpected things happened. “Basically everyone backed away. No one wanted to risk taking the leap federal government after the victory of Donald Trump”, he adds anonymously for fear of suffering reprisals. The new president has put the officialdom in his sights. He accuses the bureaucracy of operating as a kind of nefarious “deep state” (‘Deep State’) dedicated to sabotaging its policies. He has declared war on him and purges have already begun.
“We are going to get rid of cancer in all its manifestations,” Trump said this week after signing an executive order to reclassify some public jobs, which will facilitate the dismissal of tens of thousands of career officials and their replacement by political cadres. The Republican’s team has anticipated that up to 50,000 officials in positions of responsibility could be fired. One of the measures telegraphed by the magnate during the campaign to “shatter the deep state” and “fire dishonest bureaucrats and career politicians”, whom he accuses of destroying the country. “People are scared. There is fear of retaliation and of someone pointing fingers at you for not being loyal enough to the president,” another official, in this case, linked to foreign policy, assures this newspaper.
Trump has done nothing to allay those fears. Quite the opposite. Even before he took office, his transition team dedicated itself to questioning part of the organization chart. National Security Council (NSC), asking them What candidate did you vote for? in November, his donations during the campaign or his positions on social networks, as published by the Associated Press. It was just the beginning because this week, in a videoconference that lasted just two minutes, the new heads of the NSC asked their workers to collect their things to do not return until further notice. “Let me be clear: everyone who works at the NSC will be fully aligned with the America first agenda”the new National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, had said before.
“Nepotistic clientelism”
Los personnel changes in the government apparatus They are common every time a new president arrives at the White House. But the appointment of political positions tends to be limited to positions of greatest responsibility to guarantee the continuity of a body of civil administrators regardless of political ups and downs. An idea now seriously threatened by the so-called Schedule F, the clause recovered by Trump to reclassify thousands of public jobs. “It is a return to system of ‘nepotistic clientelism’ that prevailed in the United States until the Public Administration reform at the end of the 19th century. To be hired then, you not only had to be a ‘man of the party’, but from the appropriate faction of the party,” Lawrence University historian Jerald Podair told this newspaper. “Now Trump puts the political loyalty above merit as a fundamental criterion to work for the State.”
The purges and replacements are beginning to take shape throughout the Administration. The first to see their jobs placed on administrative suspension, the first step to being fired, are the officials in charge of implementing Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) policies, a program repealed by Trump. Not only that, but according to ‘The New York Times’, workers in various departments have been told that they will have to face “adverse consequences” if they do not report those colleagues who are breaking the order. A directive more typical of the Stalinist regimes.
Disbandment of diplomats
Also in the State Departmentin charge of managing foreign policy together with the National Security Council, the president’s transition team has asked dozens of diplomats and middle officials who present their resignation. A recommendation that has been followed by many, according to several American media. At the same time, the Pentagon has announced the appointment of 32 new intermediate positionsfrom department heads to political managers or legal advisors, all of them chosen for their loyalty to the president.
And it’s just the beginning. The newly created Department of Government Efficiencywho will direct Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, prepares a kind of scrapping of the Public Administrationwhere a total of 2.1 million workers work. “There will be massive staff cuts and we expect some agencies to be completely eliminated,” he said a few weeks ago. Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessman who was called to share his management with Musk until the differences between the two forced the former to step down from his position.
The politicization of the civil service generates concern in the country. “Who do we want to advise the president when the lives of many Americans are at stake?” asks Professor Podair. “Someone appointed for his loyalty and fear of losing his job or someone who can say ‘Mr President, I don’t think this is a good idea’?” That is precisely what happened to Trump during his first term, when many of his advisors stopped him. This time he does not want the slightest interference and hence the zeal that his entourage is applying to prevent it.
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