Donald Trump is reportedly aiming to slash the workforces of nearly two dozen federal agencies by between 8 and 50 percent, according to a White House document preparing federal officials for the enormous cuts.
According to the Washington Post, which obtained the document and spoke to two people familiar with it on condition of anonymity, its contents include plans for 22 agencies.
People familiar with the document told the paper that the plans are fluid and that the numbers are not final.
That said, the plans reportedly show that upcoming cuts will have a severe impact on what federal agencies will be able to accomplish in their diminished state.
One document reportedly references the Department of Housing and Urban Development and suggests a cut of approximately half of its 8,300-person staff. A similar entry about the Department of the Interior shows a reduction of one in four of its employees, and an IRS note suggests a cut of nearly one in three employees.
A White House official told the Washington Post that the document it was referencing was not up to date.
“It’s no secret the Trump Administration is dedicated to downsizing the federal bureaucracy and cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. This document is a pre-deliberative draft and does not accurately reflect final reduction in force plans,” White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told the outlet. “When President Trump’s Cabinet Secretaries are ready to announce reduction in force plans, they will make those announcements to their respective workforces at the appropriate time.”
Trump and his right-hand man, Elon Musk — the head of the Department of Government Efficiency — have already taken efforts to lay off tens of thousands of federal workers, ostensibly to reduce “corruption” and to save money, though DOGE has had difficulty proving the efficacy of its work.
The document also shows an 8 percent reduction at the Department of Justice, a 28 percent decrease at the National Science Foundation, a 30 percent decrease at the Commerce Department, and a 43 percent decrease at the Small Business Administration, among other cuts.
The EPA is reportedly looking at a 10 percent cut, and the Treasury Department is facing a proposed 30 percent cut. The EPA told the paper that the document “does not track with any current EPA plans.”
Included in the document are some estimated savings from the proposed cuts, but they amount to only a small fraction of the $1.8 trillion federal budget deficit that DOGE is trying to achieve.
This has led to some speculation by analysts that if Musk hopes to achieve that goal, the government will have to make severe cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicaid.
The cuts, should they come to pass, will inevitably mean reductions in the scope of the work possible at federal agencies.
For example, field office managers at the Social Security Administration are now taking on receptionist tasks because they have no one to answer phones, and the agency’s website has gone down four times in the past month. That means retirees and disabled Americans must hope that the website is working when they want to access their accounts.
National Park workers have warned that lines at the precious and irreplaceable locations have doubled, and that reservations have been cancelled for visitors due to a lack of staff.
Veterans Affairs, which helps U.S. veterans with their benefits for service, including healthcare, is facing a reduction of 80,000 workers, many of whom are veterans themselves. The cuts focus primarily on policy and program analysts, health-care support staff, and call centers.
Two VA employees, who provided a draft proposal of the cuts coming to the agency to the Washington Post, said that the fired workers are expected to be replaced by automated systems.
