Donald Trump, in concert with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, have reportedly fired nearly 6,000 veterans this year.
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Ranking Member Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the Trump administration had fired nearly 6,000 veterans since it began gutting federal agencies.
“Our veterans make significant sacrifices in service of our country, but those sacrifices do not seem to matter to President Trump and unchecked billionaire Elon Musk,” DeLauro wrote. “They are an essential part of our federal workforce, bringing their expertise to every single agency. Republicans are turning their back on them, allowing Musk to fire at least 6,000 veterans and leave them with no way to feed their families or keep a roof over their heads.”
DeLauro said that the firings should “outrage anyone who respects our veterans and servicemembers and believes our promises to them should be upheld.”
Musk, under the auspices of DOGE, has been making cuts to the federal government by firing federal workers he deems unnecessary. His actions have effectively shuttered USAID, which engages in foreign development and influence work, and he has threatened to “delete” the US Department of Education. More than 10,000 USAID staffers have been placed on leave, according to ABC News.
Dozens of “probationary employees” at the Department of Education were let go on February 12, according to two sources who spoke to the broadcaster..
Musk’s team has also targeted the Department of Homeland Security — which saw more than 400 employees fired, half of which were members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides relief after disasters.
Approximately 2,000 federal employees at the Department of Energy have been fired, including some from the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Musk’s culling has not only cost veterans their jobs, but it’s targeting the agency that provides them services, including healthcare; the Department of Veterans Affairs.
One of those employees was Andrew Lennox, who spent 10 years as a US Marine and deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria during his time in the armed forces.
Lennox told Mother Jones he was shocked when he saw the email informing him that he no longer had a job. He joined the VA to help other veterans and assumed his job would be safe under a Republican administration that ostensibly valued its veterans.
“My thought process was: This is the VA. We are going to be at the very end of the list. And it might sound kind of selfish, but I thought, I’m a vet. I’m safe,” he told Mother Jones.
He pointed to Project 2025 co-author and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought’s comments that the Trump administration wants to “make life so miserable that these people don’t want to come to work every day,” and that he wants working in the federal government to be a “traumatic experience” as evidence that the administration doesn’t care about its federal workers, including veterans.
“You want this to be a traumatic experience for government employees, 30 percent of whom are veterans?” Lennox said. “How could you stand behind a podium—and now stand in a position where there’s the flag of the United States behind you—and say that to people who dedicated their lives to serving this country both in uniform and out of uniform? It’s cowardly.”
According to ABC News, Musk’s cuts have eliminated 2,400 people in the VA, and more than 1,000 probationary employees were released from their roles on February 13, according to the agency.
The Trump administration defended its cuts by saying that the firings were part of its “government-wide Trump Administration effort to make agencies more efficient, effective and responsive to the American People.”
“Trump and Musk have launched an unwarranted and unjustified attack on the veterans and military spouses who sacrificed so much for all of us,” Wasserman Shultz said. “By upending their lives and careers, these groundless firings are a disgraceful assault on heroes who admirably served our country. It is deeply offensive that this Administration would attempt to balance our budget on the backs of our veterans.”
The federal government is the single largest employer of veterans in the US. Veterans make up 30 percent of the approximately 2.3 million person civilian federal workforce, according to the release.
The congresswomen warned that Musk’s goal of cutting 75 percent of the federal workforce would mean that up to 500,000 veterans could lose their jobs.
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
