washington — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday ordered federal agencies to undertake more large-scale layoffs of federal workers, as downsizing czar Elon Musk vowed at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting to pursue deeper spending cuts.
A new administration memo instructed agencies to submit plans by March 13 for a “significant reduction” in staffing to the federal workforce. It did not specify numbers of desired layoffs.
The memo, signed by White House budget director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management acting head Charles Ezell, represents a major escalation in Trump and Musk’s campaign to slash the size of the U.S. government.
Thus far, the layoffs have focused on probationary workers, who have less tenure in their current roles and enjoy fewer job protections. The next round would target the vastly bigger pool of veteran civil servants.
At the Cabinet meeting, Trump said Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, plans to cut up to 65% of his more than 15,000 employees.
On Tuesday, an Interior Department source told Reuters that bureaus such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs should prepare for workforce reductions ranging from 10% to 40%.
About 100,000 of the nation’s 2.3 million civilian federal workers have been fired or taken buyouts since Trump took office.
Trump gave Musk an extraordinary sign of support for the cost-cutting campaign by inviting the billionaire to the Cabinet meeting and asking him to speak about the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, which is overseeing the overhaul. DOGE is not a Cabinet-level department.
Musk expressed confidence that he could cut the $6.7 trillion budget by $1 trillion this year. Such an ambitious target would likely entail significant disruption of government programs.
Without such deep spending cuts, Musk said, “the country will go de facto bankrupt.”
Later Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to work with DOGE to review and terminate all “unnecessary” contracts and instructing the General Services Administration, which manages the government’s real estate, to create a plan for disposing of any unneeded property.
Thus far, Trump and Musk have failed to slow the rate of spending. According to a Reuters analysis, the government spent 13% more during Trump’s first month in office than during the same time last year, largely because of higher interest payments on the debt and rising health and retirement costs incurred by an aging population.
Trump reiterated his promise to refrain from cutting popular health and retirement benefits that account for nearly half of the budget.
“We’re not going to touch it,” Trump said.
Trump is simultaneously pushing Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts, the signature legislative accomplishment of his first term, which are set to expire at year’s end. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the 2017 cuts added $2.5 trillion to the nation’s debt — now $36 trillion. It estimated that extending the tax cuts could cost more than $5 trillion over a decade.
Republicans are weighing cuts to health care and food aid for the poor to help pay for the tax cuts, though specifics have not yet emerged.
Workers ‘on the bubble’
Some of the Cabinet secretaries were taken by surprise over the weekend when federal workers received an email requiring them to list their accomplishments for the week, a demand that Musk said would result in termination if ignored.
Some agencies told employees to ignore the directive, prompting days of confusion over whether Musk and Trump could make good on the threat.
Musk, the world’s richest person, told the Cabinet meeting his email was an attempt to find out whether government paychecks were going to actual workers.
“We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead,” he said, without providing evidence.
Trump suggested that the roughly 1 million workers who did not respond to Musk’s email might be at risk of losing their jobs.
“They are on the bubble,” he said, using a term that refers to a situation that has an uncertain outcome.
Trump and Musk’s unprecedented government overhaul has also frozen foreign aid and disrupted construction projects and scientific research.
The GSA, informally known as the government’s landlord, plans to terminate 1,100 leases for office space by the end of the year, according to a person briefed on the matter.
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