Summary of the Executive Orders & Memos Related to Civil Servants

The Trump Administration’s assault on the federal workforce has begun with a flurry of Executive Orders, memos from OPM, and calls for action from the White House. Democracy 2025 is the strategic hub to protect people and their rights should the Trump-Vance administration seek to unlawfully strip away freedoms and prosperity. The newly launched Response Center housed by Democracy 2025 provides real-time analysis of Trump-Vance administration actions, to support legal challenges and provide resources for the pro-democracy community. The Response Center continues to summarize and analyze actions taken by the Trump-Vance administration. Many of the summarized actions below come from the Response Center. Civil servants may be particularly concerned about the directives below. 

Targeted Removal of DEIA Activities and Staff

OPM issued a memo directing agencies to dismantle Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs across federal agencies, as directed by President Trump’s recent executive order. It mandates placing DEIA staff on leave, closing DEIA offices, removing public-facing DEIA materials, canceling DEIA activities, and reporting compliance actions, including plans for staff reductions. These measures effectively purge DEIA efforts from the federal government, halting progress on inclusivity and equity. By targeting DEIA staff and programs, the administration undermines diversity in the federal workforce. This directive suppresses equal employment opportunities and risks fostering discriminatory practices. Ultimately, it weakens democracy by marginalizing initiatives that promote fairness, equity, and representation in government institutions.

Flooding the Federal Government with Unqualified Political Appointees

Using a combination of Executive Orders and memos, lifted caps on political appointments, bypassed Senate confirmations, and waived background checks, granting unvetted appointees access to sensitive information. 

Hiring Freeze

This Executive Order places a freeze on vast swaths of federal hiring, making it harder for the government to provide critical services and protections. This order institutes an immediate hiring freeze throughout the executive branch, with some exceptions. It also provides for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to consult with the DOGE on a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce. The IRS is targeted for a lengthier freeze than the rest of government. This overbroad and arbitrary freeze will make it harder for the government to staff essential positions that benefit all Americans.

Return to In-Person Work

This Executive Order commands all federal remote workers back to the office full-time, without regard to the disruptions it could cause. This order directs agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and require remote workers to return to the office full-time. Only department and agency heads can grant exceptions, and there are no standards listed for those exceptions. This will create major hardships for remote workers, despite remote work being common outside the government, and it will make it harder for the government to provide essential services and protections.

Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce

This Executive Order reinstates "Schedule F" and makes it easier to fire career civil servants who provide critical services to all Americans. By making it easier to fire career civil servants, this executive order significantly impairs our government's ability to provide essential services that millions of Americans rely on. Indeed, career civil servants are nonpartisan experts who help keep our food, medicine, transportation, and water safe; secure our public safety and our national security; deliver our mail; support our education and health care systems; and work in our court houses, our airports, our national parks, and so much more. This order could enable a political leader to replace these nonpartisan public servants with partisan ideologues.

Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives

This Executive Order injects politics into the hiring, review, and retention of public servants in the "Senior Executive Service" who keep the government running for the American people. This memo directs Trump-Vance political appointees to control various personnel affecting non-partisan senior executives. The key initiatives include requiring that performance plans are set centrally, rather than by supervisors; reassigning these senior executives without real guidance; and, having political appointees dominate the internal boards that oversee hiring and performance. The clear purpose is to harass and control those nonpartisan public servants who have the most experience delivering for Americans.

Establishing and Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" 

This Executive Order establishes the "Department of Government Efficiency," which has been tasked with modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency. This executive order claims to create the "Department of Government Efficiency" as a Temporary Organization under 5 U.S.C. 3161, with a stated purpose to modernize federal technology and software in order to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity. Such a mission may appear to be benign, or even a positive development for the federal bureaucracy, but Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and others associated with DOGE have made clear their intent to target, overrule, or undermine civil servants; roll back important protections that keep us safe; and, cut massive programs that benefit tens of millions of Americans.

Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service

This Executive Order directs political appointees and the DOGE to create a hiring plan that would further undermine career public servants and their ability to serve the American people. This order begins by repeating falsehoods about federal hiring, including claims that it is driven by illegal, discriminatory preferences, rather than the merit system it is actually based on. It then uses that false premise to order political loyalists — including the yet-unnamed leader of the DOGE — to create a federal hiring plan accordingly. The order may increase, rather than decrease, hiring discrimination by assessing candidates based on easily manipulated attributes like faithfulness to the Executive Branch — rather than the country or our Constitution.