The Trump administration will “offer” federal employees the opportunity to submit “deferred resignations.” This would allow them to receive regular paychecks until September 2025. A senior government official told NBC that 5-10% of the federal workforce is expected to resign-this could result in savings of about $100 billion.
All full-time federal employees will be eligible to join the initiative, with the exception of the military, postal service employees, and positions related to immigration enforcement and homeland security.
“American taxpayers pay for the salaries of federal government employees, and therefore deserve employees working on their behalf who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump Administration will provide a very generous payout of 8 months.”
Affected employees received an email informing them about the new arrangements: these employees will have until February 6 to submit their respective resignations. The Trump administration’s move is clearly reminiscent of the strategy adopted by Elon Musk after his acquisition of Twitter, later renamed X by the world’s richest man.
At the time, the 53-year-old from Pretoria pushed his employees to choose between accepting arduous new working conditions or leaving the company. Of course, the initiative launched by Trump in recent days has also immediately stirred up several controversies from federal unions, who see it as a maneuver aimed at emptying the local bureaucracy and alienating civil servants.
“Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said, “The number of civil servants hasn’t meaningfully changed since 1970, but there are more Americans than ever who rely on government services”.
