Trump strips job protections from 8,000 federal workers

President Trump has issued an executive order removing civil service job protections from approximately 8,000 federal workers, converting them to at-will employees who can be terminated without cause or explanation.

The order, released Wednesday by the White House and the Office of Personnel Management, targets a mostly senior group of federal employees earning up to nearly $200,000 annually who are deemed to be "influencing" government policy. Scott Kupor, director of the OPM, which oversees the government's human resources policies, previewed the move in a call to reporters.

The action represents a continuation of an effort Trump initiated during his first term to strip vast numbers of federal employees of civil service protections. Those protections were originally designed to insulate federal workers' employment from political pressure and allow them to perform their duties independently of partisan considerations.

Under the new order, affected workers lose the procedural safeguards that previously required the government to provide reasons for termination and allow for appeals or other due process mechanisms. As at-will employees, they can be dismissed at the discretion of their supervisors or agency leadership without such protections.

The targeted group represents a significant portion of the highest-paid federal workforce. The salary threshold of approximately $200,000 captures senior officials and policy-influencing positions across multiple federal agencies, though the exact breakdown by agency was not detailed in the announcement.

The OPM's involvement in releasing the order underscores the administration's use of the personnel management office as a vehicle for implementing workforce policy changes. The timing of the announcement on Wednesday made the order immediately applicable to affected employees.