Are the Recent Government Layoffs Cost-Saving Measures or a Coup Inside the White House?
Since President Donald Trump took to the campaign trail, he has made it a goal to cut numerous departments and employees of the federal government. As of March 28, at least 121,361 workers have been laid off or targeted for layoffs from federal agencies, including 100% of those within the Agency for International Development (around 10,000 employees) and more than 50% of those with the Department of Education (at least 2,100 employees).
When asked whether there are any constitutional issues involving the mass government layoffs, political science and urban studies professor Scott Braam said, “I’d like to broaden it a little bit. Because what we’re actually seeing is sort of an inside coup. Because he’s elected, Trump is elected, and his people are elected in an election that was actually a normal election.”
“He can sign all these executive orders, and that’s fine,” Braam continued. “You can do that. But what is happening, if you notice what is happening, is how they’re being, often they’re being challenged by the courts.”
When asked how he thought the layoffs will affect our day-to-day life, Braam said, “I think there’s a lagging effect, meaning all this is happening, but we might not start feeling it until summer. A lot of this with the tariffs, right about now, supposedly end of May, we’re supposed to start to feel that. That means when we go to the grocery store, we’re going to start paying more.”
While talking about the layoffs of national park employees, Braam said, “These layoffs, you might not feel it even longer because there’s a lag in that. But I bet if you plan on going to Yosemite this July because you planned a family vacation and you spent a ton of money and you did that or Yellowstone, I bet if you go this summer, you’ll notice things will be closed. It’ll be dirty. More people will die. There’ll be accidents. There won’t be the proper sort of structures and regulations set up in these places.”
When talking about how the process of layoffs normally happens compared to what happened this time around, Braam said, “I don’t necessarily know, except I know that it doesn’t happen that way. You don’t get an email that says you’re going to be, and then people were just escorted out of there. The way that they did it was half-hazardly, half-ass, if you want to say it.”
Although the conversation with Braam included lighter points like the weather, his home remodeling (and how expensive it might get due to the tariffs), and how the topics discussed related to his classes, a big sticking point was how scary it can be right now with everything happening and how it is normal to be scared, even for a seasoned political professional.
