The Purged

"The purge began late Friday night, four days after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Seventeen inspectors general-internal watchdogs embedded throughout the federal government-received emails notifying them of their termination. Three weeks later came the Valentine's Day Massacre: the ousting of tens of thousands of federal employees with little discernible pattern, across agencies and across the country. By April, entire departments-the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-had been gutted."

"Toxicity became HR policy. Employees received an email with the subject line "Fork in the Road." It offered eight months' pay to anyone who resigned, and no assurances of job security to those who stayed. A follow-up email encouraged them "to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector." At the end of Trump's first year back in office, roughly 300,000 fewer Americans worked for the government."

Late Friday night, four days after Donald Trump returned to the White House, inspectors general received termination notices. Tens of thousands of federal employees were ousted three weeks later in a broad, patternless purge that gutted entire departments by April, including USAID and the CFPB. Employees were offered an eight-month severance through a "Fork in the Road" email and faced no job security guarantees. Follow-up messaging encouraged moves from lower-productivity public roles to higher-productivity private-sector jobs. Roughly 300,000 fewer Americans worked for the government by the end of Trump's first year back. The exodus disproportionately included top experts and skilled practitioners, eroding institutional knowledge.

Read at The Atlantic