Trump defends cutting nearly 300,000 feds from their ‘boring’ jobs

President Trump on Tuesday touted shedding nearly 300,000 employees from the federal payroll during his first year back in the White House as part of a rambling address to reporters largely devoted to defending his administration’s crackdown on immigrant communities and dissent and threatened expansionism.

The comments on the federal workforce came during a more than hour-long presentation at the start of a briefing with reporters aimed at highlighting the administration’s first-year accomplishments. Trump read prepared remarks noting that the federal payroll has fallen by 270,000 workers since his inauguration last January, though he quickly inflated that figure to “millions.” The Office of Personnel Management has estimated federal job losses to the tune of 317,000 during fiscal 2025.

Trump then defended the purge of federal civil servants, claiming, again without evidence, that those who left government were now making upwards of triple what they made from their “boring federal job” in the private sector.

“We cut millions of people from the federal payroll—I don’t like doing that, but the good news is I don’t feel badly because now they’re getting private sector jobs and they’re getting some times twice as much money, three times as much money,” he said. “They’re getting factory jobs; they’re getting much better jobs and much higher pay.”

Early in Trump’s second term, federal agencies took a multi-pronged approach to reducing the federal headcount. Leaders engaged in a mass purge of federal workers who had been recently hired or promoted, pressured employees into enrolling in the deferred resignation program and issued large-scale reductions in force, in some cases shuttering entire agencies and subcomponents. In the months following these actions, a number of nonprofits and support networks sprang up to help former feds land on their feet.

Despite Trump’s claims, unemployment data for states with high concentrations of federal workers, like Maryland, have been steadily climbing since Trump’s return to Washington. Indeed, Justice Connection, a support network founded last year for former Justice Department staffers, on Tuesday coincidentally announced the expansion of its employee support network, which aims to help both current and former workers find new career paths by connecting them with other alumni who have already transitioned to new employment.

“We work every day to support the countless DOJ employees who are fighting to stay in their jobs. But many have been ousted, and others are resigning in response to this administration’s senseless actions; Minnesota was just the latest example,” said executive director Stacey Young in a statement. “These employees often need help with their job searches, and this new initiative creates a way for DOJ alumni to provide it.”