Pentagon to fire 5,400 workers as backlash builds to Trump downsizing effort

The Pentagon said on Friday it would cut 5,400 jobs as part of President Donald Trump's drive to slash the federal workforce, a day after some Republican lawmakers faced jeers back home from voters angry about the aggressive effort.

The cuts, due to take place next week, are a fraction of the 50,000 Defence Department job losses that some had anticipated but they might not be the last. 

One top official, Darin Selnick, said the Pentagon will implement a hiring freeze and could ultimately reduce its 950,000-strong civilian workforce by 5% to 8%.

The cuts are the latest in a fast-moving overhaul led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that has laid off more than 20,000 workers and dismantled programmes throughout the US government, from foreign aid to financial oversight.

Legal challenges have had mixed results so far, as federal judges have declined to stop the layoffs. A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for Trump to put more than 2,000 workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave.

However, the US Supreme Court blocked Trump from immediately firing
the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency.

Also on Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ordered 1,500 staffers to be transferred out of its Washington headquarters to offices around the country, according to two sources. Roughly one in four FBI employees currently work in Washington, according to government figures.

In some cases, the Trump administration has scrambled to rehire those it has fired, including workers who oversee nuclear safety and bird flu response.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would recall previously fired workers who oversee a health plan for 137,000 people sickened by toxic exposure following the Sept.11, 2001 hijacking attacks. The CDC also said it would reinstate two research contracts it had canceled to investigate cancer rates among emergency responders after it faced criticism from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

A majority of Americans worry that Musk's downsizing drive could disrupt government services, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Legal experts say Trump and Musk are violating laws that give Congress authority over spending matters. Republican lawmakers have largely cheered the effort, but some faced an angry reception as they met with voters in their home districts on Thursday.

At a town hall meeting in Roswell, Georgia, Republican Representative Rich McCormick heard catcalls and boos from voters as he tried to defend Musk's cost-cutting.

"They've been indiscriminate and they've taken a chainsaw to these things," one attendee told him.

Another Republican congressman, Scott Fitzgerald, faced a similarly frustrated crowd in West Bend, Wisconsin.

"Presidents are not kings," said one attendee in a video broadcast by TMJ4, a local NBC affiliate.

Fitzgerald was cut off with a chorus of jeers when he told the room that Musk has been effective in finding waste.

In Westerville, Ohio, Republican Representative Troy Balderson said Trump's executive orders were "getting out of control," the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away," Balderson said at a business luncheon, the newspaper reported. "Not the president, not Elon Musk." Trump has vowed to eliminate the department.

Balderson later said he supported Trump's cost-cutting agenda.

Most of the terminated employees throughout the federal government began their current position in the last year and were therefore considered probationary, giving them less job protection. 

Roughly half of them live in states that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, government figures show.

Several recent polls, including the Reuters/Ipsos survey, have shown support for Trump's performance softening since he took office a month ago.

Asked about complaints from constituents in traditionally conservative districts over Musk's blunt-force approach, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused the media of cherry-picking critics.

"There should be no secret about the fact that this administration is committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse. The president campaigned on that promise, Americans elected him on that promise, and he's actually delivering on it," she said.

Musk's access to sensitive government data systems has raised further privacy and security concerns among critics. On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service signed a deal with a key Musk aide limiting his access to data and preventing him from viewing 

information on individual taxpayers, according to an agreement seen by Reuters.

Data posted to the DOGE website detailing headcount and total wages for the National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, was "not intended for public release," though it is not classified, an agency spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.

Democrats and labor unions say the campaign has been chaotic and haphazard rather than targeted. Several unions have filed lawsuits challenging the effort's legality. Trump and Musk say the government is bloated and wasteful.
The National Science Foundation, a federal agency that supports science and engineering, has reclassified hundreds of workers from permanent to probationary status in violation of the law, exposing these employees to termination, Democratic US Congressman Don Beyer said. 

Associated Press