Mass Federal Firings: Schedule F Strips 50,000 Workers — 'Deep State Purge' Begins

The Trump administration has dramatically escalated its overhaul of the federal workforce, stripping job protections from an estimated 50,000 career civil servants through a new executive order. The move, which reclassifies senior policy-influencing positions as "at-will" employees, has been condemned by critics as a "purge" of the so-called "deep state" and marks the most significant attack on the civil service in a century.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has issued an executive order turning an estimated 50,000 federal workers into at-will employees, meaning the government can fire them without providing any reason . The move culminates an effort Trump launched during his first term to strip vast numbers of federal employees of civil service protections designed to insulate their work from political interference .

The order, signed on June 3, 2026, reclassifies senior policy-influencing positions under a new category called Schedule Policy/Career (formerly known as Schedule F) . Nearly all of the 8,000 people immediately affected are at the highest level of the civil service, known as GS-15 — leaders of policy offices and their chiefs of staff, heads of regional offices, program managers, senior public affairs officers and those overseeing spending and grants . However, the administration has not ruled out expanding the pool at a later time, with the original Office of Personnel Management estimate suggesting some 50,000 positions could eventually be reclassified .

What Schedule Policy/Career Means

The federal government currently has about 4,000 political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president. Until now, the rest of the workforce of approximately 2 million people could only be fired for certain reasons, such as inadequate performance or misconduct, and agencies were required to follow formal processes including giving the employee an opportunity to appeal .

The new Schedule Policy/Career category exempts these positions from the adverse action procedures that make removals difficult. As the executive order states, these protections make it "so difficult that barely two-fifths of Federal supervisors believe they could remove subordinates who engage in serious misconduct, and only a quarter believe they could remove serious underperformers" .

The administration argues the move does not represent a return to the spoils system, noting that nothing is changing with the hiring process . "This is very much about accountability," OPM Director Scott Kupor told reporters. "It's also about a restoration, in our mind, of the democratic process" . The administration contends that government employees who implement policy must be willing to carry out the president's directives .

Kupor emphasized that no loyalty tests will be used, nor will the Schedule Policy/Career employees lose their whistleblower protections. Under federal law, they also can't be fired based on political affiliation .

'This Is Someone Coming in and Tossing a Hand Grenade'

Critics have condemned the move as a political purge designed to eliminate career experts who might resist the president's agenda. The notion that the federal workforce should be nonpartisan goes back 140 years, following the assassination of President James A. Garfield by a disgruntled jobseeker .

"The people responsible for protecting our public health, safeguarding our environment, delivering our mail, managing our airports, protecting our public lands, and enforcing our laws should be allowed to do their jobs, not targeted by the same government they serve," said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, one of the organizations suing the Trump administration over the rule . "When government experts can be fired without cause, it's not just federal workers who are harmed — it's the people across the country who rely on these essential services every day" .

The extreme politicization will grow worse if the president is legally able to fire tens of thousands more people for any reason, says Don Moynihan, professor at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. "It creates bubbles around policymakers" .

A Broader Purge

The reclassification is part of a broader effort to shrink the federal government. Since January 2025, DOGE-driven restructuring has eliminated approximately 256,000 federal positions — the largest deliberate right-sizing of the federal workforce since the post-Cold War drawdown of the 1990s .

Key agencies have been hit hard:

• Department of Education: Slashing about half of its 4,100-strong workforce, with approximately 1,300 staff members receiving termination notices . Education Secretary Linda McMahon said: "His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education" .

The Human Toll

The cuts have hit specialized federal workers who face difficult searches for replacement jobs. Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, was fired from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park. He was so consumed with his firing that he broke a molar from grinding his teeth .

"It's requiring me to rethink how I want to spend my professional life," said Cathy Nguyen, 51, of Honolulu, who was laid off from her job at USAID where she helped manage the PEPFAR program . Mitch Flanigan, 40, who was assigned to the sledge dog kennels at Denali National Park, appealed his firing, saying: "I still kind of want to fight for the job that I lost. I'm not making much money, it's just fun and it's a unique thing to be a part of" .

The Bottom Line

The mass firings represent the culmination of a decades-long conservative effort to dismantle the civil service. With lawsuits pending and further expansions possible, the battle over the future of the federal workforce — and whether it serves the president or the people — is only beginning.