A central part of Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential bid is a promise to dismantle the \u201cdeep state.\u201d
\u201cEither the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state,\u201d the former president declared in March at his first rally.
He has also vowed “retribution” for his political enemies, saying that if he gets back into the White House “their reign is over.”
Last month, Trump released a list of proposals to take down what many conservatives believe is a secret cabal of government workers who wield enormous power and work against Republicans. Many seemed personal, tied to Trump investigations past and present. They included cracking down on government whistleblowers, making troves of documents public and creating independent auditors to monitor U.S. intelligence agencies.
But it\u2019s the lead proposal that concerns civil servants and excites conservative activists. And it\u2019s something Trump implemented briefly as president.
At the top of Trump\u2019s list is reinstituting an executive order known as \u201cSchedule F,\u201d which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees involved in policy decisions as at-will employees. In other words, they would lose their employment protections, and it would be much easier for a president to fire them.
And to give a taste of how the policy might be used, the line immediately following Schedule F is a pledge to \u201coverhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.\u201d
The policy was instituted in the final weeks of the Trump administration but was not fully implemented. This time around, should Trump return to the White House, there would be little delay.
Yet the embrace of this proposal, or maneuvers like it, extends beyond Trump.
\u201cI think Schedule F is basically doctrine now on the right,\u201d said Russ Vought, an architect of Schedule F when he was Trump\u2019s director of the Office of Management and Budget. \u201cSo I think one that sits in that position does not have an ability to not do this, not unlike any other governing philosophy\u201d widely embraced by conservatives.
\u201cSchedule F is getting to the point where I cannot see anyone who runs on the Republican side who doesn\u2019t put this into play,\u201d Vought, the president of the Center for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank, continued.
Indeed, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who polls as Trump\u2019s most formidable potential presidential rival, dedicated space in his recently published political memoir to Schedule F, writing positively about the policy while appearing to mildly criticize Trump for not having instituted it sooner.
DeSantis, who has long railed against what he sees as excessive bureaucracy, used his executive power in Florida to assert broad authority, be it through his suspension of a state attorney who was reluctant to prosecute abortion-related cases or his efforts to overhaul the state\u2019s higher education system.
\u201cMany had hoped that the administration of Donald Trump would rectify this by implementing a plan known as Schedule F, which would recharacterize about fifty thousand federal employees who are engaged in \u2018policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating\u2019 as being effectively at-will employees who serve at the pleasure of the president,\u201d DeSantis wrote. \u201cThus, the president would be able to terminate federal employees who frustrate his policies, thereby dealing a blow to the idea that the bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government.\u201d
Vivek Ramaswamy, a long-shot GOP presidential candidate, said he wants to go even further than Trump and doesn\u2019t think an executive order is needed to enact his own platform to attack \u201cthe deep state,\u201d which includes shutting down and replacing both the FBI and the IRS. Rather than reclassify employees, Ramaswamy said, powers vested in the Constitution and existing statutes can be read in a way that already gives presidents broad authority \u201cto implement this kind of change.\u201d
\u201cI think that you already have that latitude, even without \u2026 Schedule F,\u201d he said, describing the executive order as \u201cclever\u201d but \u201calmost too humble in its aims.\u201d
Republican officeholders have long lamented a federal bureaucracy they see as hostile to their initiatives, a feeling that peaked during Trump\u2019s tenure in office. The focus on career officials intensified during the Covid pandemic, when Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the country\u2019s leading expert on viruses, became a boogeyman on the right.
Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization dedicated to an effective federal government, said such proposals and the broader push among Republicans to fundamentally change how the civil service works are causing \u201cquite a bit of anxiety in the federal workforce and in the broader community of organizations that are focused on trying to help our government work more effectively.\u201d
He added that there is \u201ca lot of uncertainty\u201d about what could be achieved merely through executive action and what would require congressional buy-in.
\u201cThe basic issue, really, is a lack of appreciation for how fundamental a professionalized civil service is to good outcomes for the American people,\u201d Stier said.
\u201cThe contours are uncertain,\u201d he added. \u201cBut there\u2019s certainly real harm that could happen.\u201d
As president, Trump also took dramatic moves to exert power over the civil service. In 2019, his administration decided to relocate the Bureau of Land Management headquarters, telling staff members they had to move to Colorado from Washington, D.C., if they wanted to keep their jobs. More than 87% of the affected employees decided to resign or retire, according to data from The Washington Post. (Stier noted that the vast majority of federal employees already live and work outside the Washington, D.C., area.)
Recently, Trump has called for all federal employees to \u201cpass a new civil service test\u201d that aligns with his view of how the government should work and \u201cput unelected bureaucrats back in their place.\u201d
Of course, he is also highlighting his agenda to dismantle the \u201cdeep state\u201d as he decries \u201ca very dark cloud\u201d of investigations swirling around him. Prosecutors in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., are examining allegations he tried to cover up hush money payments to women during his 2016 campaign (in connection with which he was indicted this month) and overthrow the 2020 presidential election, as well as his handling of classified documents.
Trump has also since called for Republicans to \u201cdefund\u201d the FBI and the Justice Department.
\u201cThe American people should be shocked to learn that a twice impeached, and now indicted, former president is recycling his plans to strip the federal workforce of its independence and reshape the entire federal government into his own personal political machine,\u201d Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., whose district is home to many federal employees, said in a statement. \u201cDonald Trump doesn\u2019t want a government of, by, and for the people. He wants a government of, by, and for Donald Trump. I led the charge against his original Schedule F proposal and I will continue to fight him every step of the way.\u201d
Trump\u2019s campaign didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.
Not all Republicans are aligned with Trump on such issues. Speaking to reporters last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pushed back against Trump\u2019s call to defund federal law enforcement, saying, \u201cWe ought to be looking for ways to spend more on law enforcement.\u201d Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, said in an interview that Trump\u2019s policy agenda is \u201cmore about getting even with his political enemies than leading our country, which concerns me.\u201d
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he likes \u201ca heck of a lot of what\u201d Trump is proposing, because \u201cyou basically have massive unelected bureaucrats who essentially run the country, and that has got to change.\u201d
But, he added, he would prefer to see Congress enact legislation rather than Trump act purely from executive action should he be elected next year.
It\u2019s \u201ca great conversation to have,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s a lot to like in his proposal. And I think the best thing would be for Congress to get involved to say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s fix this legislatively.\u2019\u201d
On the surface, it\u2019s unlikely such changes could advance through a Senate that requires 60 votes on most legislative efforts. But Vought said much of the agenda can be completed through executive power alone, listing Schedule F, changing declassification standards, the background check process for security clearances or even the review process for employee performance. He said it\u2019s important to understand \u201cthe levers that you have that are not legal changes.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of things that you can do without statutory change,\u201d Vought said. \u201cAnd I think that those are where we should focus on and then you go to Congress and you ask for things that you don\u2019t have.\u201d
Stier emphasized that safeguarding current civil service protections isn\u2019t a partisan issue and that \u201cmany, many, many\u201d Republicans are supportive.
\u201cThis is based on this really important misconception of this idea that civil servants should be beholden to the current occupant of the White House, as opposed to being there to be the expert, professional supporters of whoever\u2019s elected and ultimately committed to the rule of law and to our Constitution,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n