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| No Kings rally in Belmont, MA, on Saturday, June 14th, 2025. What I love about this photo is that it looks like it could be a Norman Rockwell painting, and on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post |
There is so much to protest right now, between the Trump administration’s economic policies, the tariffs, the threats to civil rights, LGBTQ rights, human rights, and the inhumane implementation of immigration policies, but I want to speak to something that’s happening behind the scenes: the calculated, deliberate attack and dismantling of the federal government, and the larger gameplan to replace the federal workforce with Trump loyalists. I just retired from federal service, and can tell you, many more people would be speaking out, but are afraid to do so. Having just retired, not through the Deferred Resignation Program (which would have required me to stay on Government rolls through September 30th, while on paid Administrative Leave), I am now free to speak.
During Trump’s first administration, he subjected
each agency to a loyalty
test, to see who would obey, who he could trust to
carry out his orders.
Through that process, he must have realized that while an agency might follow
orders, the individuals within them may not agree, and may not be loyal to him.
It's far more granular, each worker an individual pixel, with 2.2 million of
them making up the face of the federal workforce. Federal employees take an
oath to the Constitution, not to an individual President.
The intent this time is to replace the federal workforce with Trump loyalists, first
by replacing the heads of agencies, starting with the Office of Personnel and
Management, OPM – the ones who write the rulebooks for the federal workforce. So,
step one was to gut and replace OPM staff with Trump loyalists, so they could
re-write the rules, and enforce the new mandates thrown out there by the newly
created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Trump’s henchman,
Elon Musk (until their recent parting of ways), all fueled by a flurry of
Executive Orders. Many on the face of them, sound okay – who would be against
improving efficiency in Government or rooting out waste? But that has all been
a grand charade, masking the true intent to root out workers who are not loyal
to Trump, which completely goes against what was put into law in the 1880’s
with the Pendleton Act, that created a merit-based federal workforce, which was
further codified in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. Prior to the Pendleton Act
of 1883, the federal workforce would be replaced along party lines every
election, without regard to merit or qualifications. The federal workforce is
meant to be non-partisan, and founded purely on merit-based performance,
ensuring a culture of transparency, free of discrimination or threats.
For the full read: https://www.mspb.gov/msp/meritsystemsprinciples.htm
What is most galling is that everything that has been thrown at the federal
workforce has been under the guise of rooting out inefficiency.
One DOGE staffer found that govt was not as inefficient as he thought. He got
fired.
https://futurism.com/doge-fires-operative-admitted-efficiency
Most recently, OPM has proposed that job
applicants will be required to write essays, one saying how the Constitution
inspires their interest in public service, and another saying how they would
advance the President’s Executive Orders, and to pick one or two of them to
describe how they would help implement them if hired.
Executive Orders come and go, just as
Presidents come and go. They are the cheapest form of governance. The
Constitution endures.
These questions appear to be blatant loyalty
tests. And may be moot anyway, since hiring freezes remain in place at most
agencies. Plus, how will the federal government ever hire again, after this
display of rampant chaos and mistreatment of the workforce?
Let’s make no mistake about this, that the
actual intent behind almost everything that DOGE has done is cruelty, aimed at making
the federal workplace a very chaotic, uncertain, and uncomfortable place to be.
I said at first that he was just throwing
stuff out there, like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. I was
wrong. That’s what he did during his first administration. Rather, this has
been a deliberate, calculated plan, pushing as far as possible, crossing lines
and overreaching far beyond what’s legal and ethical, to test the will of
others to rein him in, all to be fought out later in legal battles in the court
room. It was all laid out in Project 2025, a blueprint for his action. They’re
doing exactly what they set out to do, and so we shouldn’t be surprised, but it
is still shocking. It was published by the Heritage Foundation in 2023.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
The ACLU has created a quick summary:
https://www.aclu.org/project-2025-explained
Here is a brief list of what the federal workforce has endured since January 20th.
Fork in the Road email
came in January 28th – Seemed a bit dodgy, offered workers an early
out through a Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), while getting paid through 30
September. Also talked about 4 pillars: return to office, updated performance
standards, downsizing of most agencies, and enhanced standards of suitability
and conduct.
Firing of Probationary Employees. Around this time, OPM either told or asked agencies to fire their probationary
employees, and many started doing so, even though it’s technically illegal.
Probationary employees are simply the most recent hires, with less than one
year as a federal employee. They have fewer union protections, and so it can be
simpler to fire a probationary employee, but there still must be a cause for
their dismissal, either performance or conduct based. It made me wonder if
there hadn’t been some huge misunderstanding, given that so many of the DOGE
staff were hired right out of school, perhaps they had it mixed up with the
schoolyard term, where a student is put on probation due to misconduct or low
grades. This has been hung up in the courts, with some agencies calling their
probationary staff back, while others wait anxiously to hear what’s going to
happen to them. Some agencies argued they were told to fire them, while OPM
says they only asked the agencies to do so.
DEI purge. Any reference or use of
the terms “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” had to be removed from
websites and performance standards. Staff whose jobs supported DEI were let go.
There is a belief that DEI has been used in hiring, and that candidates are
being discriminated against as a result. Well, hiring is merit based, period.
Yes, ideally our workforce would reflect the make-up of the public we serve,
but candidates must be selected based on their qualifications. This is enshrined
within the Merit Systems Principles. Encouraging students from all backgrounds
to pursue study in fields needed in the federal government, especially STEM, requires
grassroots efforts, and has to start early, in grade school, to address
opportunity qualities. This is an issue across industry, and not just the federal
govt. I’ve written extensively about this, please check out some of my prior
posts:
Bentley STEM Event - Challenge Yourself: https://www.gainline.com/2015/01/
Business & Baseball Part 1: https://www.gainline.com/2015/08/business-baseball-conversation-with.html
The Diversity Question Part 2: https://www.gainline.com/2015/08/business-baseball-part-2-diversity.html
HUBWeek 2015 Retrospective – STEM: https://www.gainline.com/2016/09/
Geodes & Journals: https://www.gainline.com/2022/01/
Transgender rights – Others have written far more eloquently on this, as far as the
discharge of transgender servicemembers. While it didn’t impact the federal
workforce directly, it speaks to what a society will accept, as far as
treatment of the weakest, most marginalized members. “First they came for the…”
fill in the blank. Probationary employees, transgender… It makes one question
what or who will be next? Gay marriage and other LGBTQ rights could be next on
the chopping block.
Climate change purge – Documents, contracts, and studies had to be sanitized to remove the
term climate change, even while making the same statements, founded on data,
that storm frequency and intensity are increasing. Just ask the insurance
industry.
Return to Office (RTO) Mandate - Coupled with a second round of DRP in the Department of Defense, this
was a one-two punch, resulting in staff losses on the order of around 10
percent. In many cases, we lost some of our best and brightest early to
mid-career professionals who simply got priced out of the Boston metro housing
market. Employees who either moved farther out during the pandemic, or were
hired during the pandemic when telework was the norm, simply got caught up in
the net. At some higher level, the thinking was that the majority of staff
opting to leave were close to retirement, and would have been leaving in the
next 2 to 3 years anyway, and was far preferable to the Reduction In Force
(RIF) process. But the RTO-DRP had a disproportionate effect on offices located
in areas with high real estate costs and difficult commutes. Location,
location, location. As a minor footnote, given the political divide in this
country is drawn largely between rural and urban voters (see past posts), there
is a greater impact on traditionally “blue” cities, relative to urban outposts
where housing is more affordable. So, it’s hurting blue cities more so.
Agencies had routinely touted the work-life
balance and flexibility that telework afforded workers, giving them more time
with their families, and reducing their commute mileage and stress. All that
changed overnight. Whiplash. How dare we say, "People first,"
anymore, or talk about work-life balance? We went back on our word. We lost our
minds, our way, our core values.
When I tried to explain things to my staff,
all I could say was that there was not one
good reason for the RTO mandate, we had worked through the
pandemic, we had figured it out, and had adapted and developed even better ways
to collaborate and continue executing the mission. There is no correlation
between productivity and being in the office.
But there are 77 million reasons – that’s how many people voted for this administration, this President,
and his platform. This was the people's mandate for leadership, and what they
wanted. This is what we had to do right now to restore public trust in the federal workforce. When I called a distant family member, living in a deep red state, they
said how happy they were with what Mr. Trump was doing, draining that swamp. Refer
back to Project 2025, their paper is literally titled “Mandate for Leadership.”
Any time there is conflict, I try to look for something that we can all agree
on, some middle ground.
There is a kernel of truth and validity in all of this - yes, we do need to do something about the national deficit, and
tighten spending. We owe so much money to other countries, if China called in
their debt, they'd own us. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are now projected
to run out of money by 2034 (https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0170). And Congress has not had the courage or fortitude to say no to its
constituents, and furthermore back-to-back crises (the dotcom crash, 9/11, the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the housing market crash and 2008 recession, and
then the pandemic) led to added drains on the economy (wars are expensive) and were
followed by economic stimulus packages intended to infuse dollars into the
economy, by funding shovel-ready projects, to create jobs. In the meantime, most manufacturing jobs moved
overseas where there was cheaper labor, and so good-paying factory jobs became
harder and harder to find for anyone who didn’t pursue a college education.
But the cuts being made to the federal workforce will have steep ramifications
and do little to trim back the deficit. Especially at the same time as Trump is
pushing through his big, beautiful bill to cut taxes, further reducing income
to the Treasury.
And yes, of course there is always room for improvement, and ways to improve
systems to make them more efficient.
But the RTO and purging DEI, and all the other images and statements - Musk
wielding his chainsaw, saying they're doing all this in the name of efficiency
– it’s all a sham. Cutting staff has a miniscule effect on the overall
budget. The intent is pure cruelty. OPM Director Russ Vought has stated
his desire to traumatize federal workers, and make it so they don't want to go
to work each day. All so they can replace them with individuals who are loyal
to Trump.
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically
affected,” he said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want
to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want
their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against
our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”
Vought told Carlson this week the president
has to move quickly with a “radical constitutional perspective” to dismantle
the bureaucracy. No agencies should be treated as independent, he said,
presidents should be able to pick and choose what federal appropriations to
actually expend—a proposal Trump has himself backed—and federal employees
should be at-will. When Carlson said most federal employees “suck” at their
jobs, Vought agreed.”
More recently, Mr. Vought has back tracked,
saying maybe they had cut too many staff. Oops, we fired too many, and some
federal employees are good. He actually wants to grow his own OPM staff by 4%.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/06/doge-staff-cuts-rehiring-federal-workers/
But at the same time, there are moves afoot to
make federal employees decide whether to be an at-will employee, or pay more
towards their pension to retain employment rights, and to give the President
unilateral power to re-organize federal agencies without Congressional
oversight.
This is exactly what Trump said he planned to
do back in November:
What will be the fallout from all of this, the
repercussions?
It’s possible the feds will be their own worst
enemy, because they are so committed and hard-working, they will keep trying to
do it all, and keep all the balls in the air, despite having fewer staff,
resulting in more stress, and no one will notice, no one will care, because they've
kept the most critical work staffed and moving. There will be vulnerabilities,
though.
This is a calculated, deliberate gutting of the government, all going to plan,
just read Project 2025. It's the pairing up of the deep red state planners with
a charismatic leader. Not since Hitler has a leader inspired and captured the
hearts and imagination of people, those who have been left behind by
technology, lost jobs, and are angry over social change that extends civil
rights. Trump has tapped into that anger, like hitting an oil gusher, and he
has harnessed it. It’s his 38% base. See past posts on this.
Yes, he is inspiring renewed patriotism, and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth
has said that the DoD is committing itself to warfighting and restoring the
warrior ethos, and getting rid of all the “politically correct garbage."
The divide continues.
Mr. Hegseth has also emphasized unity over diversity.
Speaking at a Town Hall meeting with Pentagon
Feb 7, 2025, he said:
“Why do you get rid of something like DEI? Because
from our perspective, it's served a purpose of dividing the force as opposed to
uniting the force.
And this is something I've said quite
publicly, and what I want to be is transparent with this building and everyone
who serves here, say the same thing in public that we say in private, which I
hope you'll find from us.
I think the single dumbest phrase in military
history is “Our Diversity is Our Strength.”
I think our strength is our unity, our
strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background, regardless of how
we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race, in this
department we will treat everyone equally. We will treat everyone with
fairness. We will treat everyone with respect. And we will judge you as an
individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission.
That's how it has been. That's how it will be.
Any inference otherwise is meant to divide or create complications that
otherwise should not and do not exist.”
He’s not all wrong. But he’s not all right
either.
We need both unity and diversity. In fact, that’s a central tenet of my book, The
Happy Clam. You don’t want a place where everyone just always agrees with
each other. We get the best ideas and solutions when differing perspectives can
be heard, and brought together, to work together towards a solution, and yes,
that takes work. Drawing in differing perspectives takes work. But the reward
is worth it, and agree, once a solution is found, you need everyone’s oars in
the water at the same time, rowing in the same direction.
And so yes, among all these paradoxes, I can
both protest at the No Kings rallies and celebrate the 250th
anniversary of the founding of the US Army, dating back to June 14, 1775, when
the Second Continental Congress voted to establish what would become the US Army,
followed by the Battle of Bunker Hill a few days later. A grateful nation bows
its head in honor and thanks for your service and sacrifice, all 250 years. Someone can be
both a loyal, patriotic American, and disagree with elected officials. Which
brings me back to that first photo. Healthy, rigorous discourse is okay, even
necessary, and has been a part of our tradition going on over 249 years now.
More photos from the No Kings rally in Belmont, MA:
POST SCRIPT:
Heading out to the No Kings protest in Belmont,
MA on that Saturday morning June 14th, I had no idea that
politicians had been targeted in Minneapolis. It hadn’t made it into the local
news, nor did I hear the news rippling through the crowds. The speakers
mentioned the handcuffing of Senator Padilla at a briefing in DC; this wasn’t
on their radar either it seems.
It is cold comfort that the perpetrator of the
political assassination in Minneapolis has been captured and charged. As a
resident of Watertown, I understand the terror of being told to shelter in
place while in lockdown, while police search the neighborhood, after this
happened in our own hometown after the Boston Marathon bombing. This is the
kind of evil and violence that is fostered in this environment. I think Acting U.S.
Attorney Joe Thompson said it most eloquently, when asked where this ranked in
terms of attacks across the United States:
“This is a political assassination, which is
not a word we use very often in the United States, let alone here in Minnesota.
It’s a chilling attack on our Democracy, on our way of life. It’s only the most
recent example of violent political extremism in this country, and that’s a
trend that’s been increasing over recent years, that’s unfortunate, and I hope it’s
a wake-up call to everyone, that people can
disagree with you, without being evil or needing to be killed or hurt.”
We are only lucky that an alert off-duty police
Sergeant suggested they do a wellness check on Melissa Hortman’s house (after
hearing about the shootings in Champlin), otherwise this murderous rampage
could have continued all night and all day. All on the same day as the No Kings
protests. No coincidence.
POST POST SCRIPT:
One more thing DOGE imposed on the federal workforce was a requirement to send an email each week listing five things accomplished in the past week. It was mostly a minor inconvenience, we were all productive and getting work done, and so it was easy enough to come up with five things, but it also created another layer of anxiety, not knowing if they would be read, or how these emails might be mined, using AI, to categorize the nature of work or figure out who works for whom, since we each had to cc our supervisor. There was also concern about whether using certain terms could put a target on your back – environmental, regulatory compliance, climate change, sustainability, etc. And we all tried to beef it up to link our work to the priorities of this administration, to show allegiance. Now that I’m retired, here’s what my five things list would look like now:
- Wrote this blog post, exercising my first amendment rights, and expressing my patriotism and loyalty to the US Army and public service.
- Attended a No Kings rally, exercising
my first amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.
- Attended the local farmer’s market,
supporting local commerce and businesses, bolstering economic superiority over
foreign nations, and reducing reliance on imported goods.
- Started exercising again, building
physical strength and stamina, to build my warrior ethos.
- Started reading a book, A Rosie
Life in Italy 2, by Rosie Meleady, to have a laugh or two, as humor and
humanity are a much-needed escape sometimes. The first book in the series is
available at Belmont Books.
Speaking
of books --- my
second book, The Happy Clam, is available on store bookshelves now at:
White Birch Books, North Conway, NH
Brookline Booksellers, Brookline, MA
Booklovers’ Gourmet, Webster, MA
BOOKLINK Booksellers, Northampton, MA
Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH
Bunbury’s Bakery & Books,
Piermont, NY
Hummingbird Books, Chestnut Hill, MA
Speaking of Hummingbird Books, thank you for introducing me to author Marjan Kamali and her works. Her table was right next to mine at last fall’s local author event, and I finally got a chance to read her books: The Stationery Shop, The Lion Women of Tehran, and Together Tea, all weaving together the experiences of Iranian-Americans who fled their country years ago, to escape the political turmoil, brutal violence and autocracy there.
Speaking
of Tehran – What is
going on there?
I tuned into
David Muir the other night (June 17th) to catch up on headlines, and
things seem very dire. Will the US get involved in trying to eradicate Iran’s
nuclear weapon-building? The headlines say that Trump is “getting comfortable”
with the idea of striking Iran’s key nuclear facility. He has been presented an
attack plan, and approved it, but has not given the order. He is
Commander-In-Chief.
President
Trump has said: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If it’s a choice between fighting
and them having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”
“I may do it,
I may not do it, I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you
this, that Iran has got a lot of trouble.”
Trump has
demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender. Iran’s Supreme Leader has resisted the
idea of surrendering, and would not accept any kind of submission, warning that
“the damage America will suffer if it makes a military intervention in this
field will undoubtedly be irreparable.”
President
Trump also said the following: “I don’t want to get involved either, but I’ve
been saying for twenty years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear
weapon. I’ve been saying it for a long time. And I think they were a few weeks
from having one. Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Too much devastation. And
they’d use it. I believe they’d use it. Others won’t use it. But I believe
they’d use it."
Holding out hope for negotiations and diplomacy. As the saying goes, war is the failure of diplomacy. And we never want to squander our precious military resources. We need to be united on this front.
Peace, friends, I wish you peace.
Calendar:
Annual Watertown Grecian Festival will be held at Taxiarchae Archangels Greek Orthodox Church, located at 25 Bigelow Ave, Watertown, MA 02472, from June 20-22, 2025. The festival will feature traditional Greek food, live music, dancing, and other activities.
Watertown Arts Market will be held August 9th 2025 at Arsenal Park.
https://www.watertownartsmarket.com/
© 2025 Rosemary A. Schmidt
Rose Schmidt is the author of The Happy Clam (© 2020), and Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life (©
2003), both published by Gainline Press. The views expressed herein are solely
those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other agency or
organization. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and attribution,
within the limits of fair use, is permitted. If you would like to request
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