The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed a rule in the Federal Register on Tuesday that would enhance the federal government’s ability to fire federal employees for serious misconduct.
While the current system allows rigorous vetting during hiring, agencies have had limited means to censure post-appointment misconduct that subverts public trust. An OPM press release explains that the proposed rule “eliminates this disparity by extending the same suitability standards and tools used during the hiring process to address post-appointment conduct.”
The new rule would enable the administration to fast-track the firing of federal employees who fail to maintain federal employment suitability standards, requiring agencies to remove an employee within five workdays after OPM’s decision that an individual has violated suitability standards.
The OPM’s new rule is the latest move in Trump’s broader efforts to slim down a bloated federal bureaucracy and hold federal workers accountable. According to CNN, at least 121,000 federal workers have been laid off or targeted for layoffs so far since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. (RELATED: Young Federal Government Workers Should Accept Trump’s Buyout)
Despite judicial hindrances, the administration has no plan for halting Trump’s offensive. A new report this week on Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget says the administration is planning to cut a net of 107,000 federal employees in non-defense agencies next fiscal year, amounting to a 7 percent overall reduction.
“For too long, agencies have faced red tape when trying to remove employees who break the public’s trust,” OPM’s Acting Director, Chuck Ezell, said in the press release. “This proposed rule ensures misconduct is met with consequence and reinforces that public service is a privilege, not a right.”
In practice, public service jobs have been treated as a right for decades, providing federal bureaucrats with the advantage of guaranteed stable income without the need for stellar performance. The jobs of federal employees have been protected by law and custom, sheltering them from full accountability and the job insecurity experienced by American workers.
On the other hand, every state except for Montana follows at-will employment laws by default unless specified otherwise. Unlike 74 percent of American workers, most federal workers are not employed at will; federal employers can only fire them for specified reasons. And when federal employees are fired, they have been bestowed extensive due process rights, making it costly and tedious for administrative agencies to maintain control over their employees.
The Trump administration has been attempting to make much-needed changes to a system that has protected federal employees at the people’s expense. However, the typical response by Trump’s opponents has been to trot out various sob stories of those who have been fired. This Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen complained that “the Trump admin has illegally fired THOUSANDS of federal employees who work every day to deliver for the American people.” He then went on to lament the travails of a Department of Commerce employee who was fired from her job.
People are naturally disappointed and anxious when they lose their government jobs. It is alright to feel “very badly” for them. However, to think that the financial strains of federal employees amount to an argument against Trump’s federal layoffs fundamentally misunderstands what a civil servant is. A civil servant is supposed to be a servant of the citizens, of the people. Their federal jobs are only valuable insofar as they benefit the public, not because they benefit federal employees.
Aristotle’s Politics classifies all regimes, or constitutions, into six kinds, which are divided according to two criteria. One division is the question of who rules (one man, a few men, or the many), but the more essential character of a regime is revealed by what purpose it governs for. In good regimes, the rulers govern for the sake of the common good, whereas in bad or defective regimes, the ruling class governs for the advantage of the rulers themselves.
This paradigm reveals the obvious problem with arguments against the administration’s layoffs. They assume that the government must act to the advantage of federal bureaucrats, and that Trump’s layoffs are in error because they distress civil servants. According to Hollen, the Trump administration is bad because it took away the jobs of federal employees. But this viewpoint is precisely that of a corrupted regime.
According to Aristotle, regimes that prioritize the advantage of their rulers are analogous to the rule of a master over a slave. A slave master rules “with a view to the advantage of the master primarily, and with a view to that of the slave [only] accidentally.”
The Trump administration must continue to focus on the good of the American people rather than the benefits of those in the government. If “We the People” means anything, it means that the government must prioritize the American people over those in the federal bureaucracy.
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