Former President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is triggering widespread concern among federal employees and public service advocates. A new executive blueprint, aligned with Project 2025, outlines plans to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers, effectively stripping them of long-standing job protections and making them vulnerable to termination based on political loyalty.
At the heart of the plan is the revival and expansion of Schedule F, a controversial Trump-era executive order that sought to reclassify civil servants whose jobs are deemed “policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating.” Critics say the policy would allow a future Trump administration to purge the federal workforce of those not aligned with its political agenda.
Conservative think tanks, led by the Heritage Foundation, have spent the last two years assembling a government overhaul strategy known as Project 2025. This plan lays out a roadmap to replace tens of thousands of career professionals with Trump-aligned loyalists across agencies including the FBI, DOJ, EPA, and State Department.
“The mission is clear: dismantle the deep state, restore presidential authority, and end the sabotage from within,” said Russ Vought, former Trump budget director and one of the lead architects of the project.
Under the plan, key departments would be required to submit personnel lists identifying “problematic” staff for reassignment or termination. Advocates argue this is necessary to break the “bureaucratic stronghold” that hampers conservative policy implementation.
However, career federal employees are sounding alarms, calling the initiative a direct threat to democracy. Leaders of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Treasury Employees Union condemned the plan as a politicization of public service.
“Removing merit protections turns civil service into a loyalty test,” said Everett Kelley, president of AFGE. “This isn’t reform. It’s revenge.”
Legal experts also question whether such a sweeping overhaul would survive court scrutiny. The original Schedule F order was never fully implemented before being rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021. Biden is expected to issue new protections for civil service workers ahead of the 2025 election.
Nonetheless, Trump allies are confident they can move fast. “We’ll be ready on Day One,” said one campaign official. “The forms are printed. The lists are made.”
Democratic lawmakers are preparing legislative defenses, including a new “Protect the Civil Service Act”, aimed at permanently barring any future Schedule F-style classification. But with Republican control of the House and a tight Senate margin, its passage remains uncertain.
The looming battle over federal workforce loyalty highlights the broader stakes of the 2024 election and the growing divide between governing through institutions versus governing through ideological loyalty.As federal employees brace for what could be a historic realignment of government structure, many ask the same question: Will public service remain nonpartisan, or become a political weapon?
