President Trump says federal workers must show up to work in person before the end of next week or they’ll be fired, signaling a hard stop to pandemic-era telework policies under President Biden.
“We don’t want them to work from home because, as everyone knows, most of the time they’re not working, they’re not very productive and it’s unfair to the millions of people in the United States who are in fact working hard from job sites and not from their home,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday ahead of signing the Laken Riley Act.
“As federal employees, they must be held to a high standard,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re representing our government, they’re representing our country.”
He said if federal employees don’t agree to go back to work in person by Feb. 6, “they will be terminated and we will therefore be downscaling our government.”
Mr. Trump said past presidents have tried to downscale the federal workforce but have “failed” and said some workers haven’t been to their office in years, even prior to the pandemic.
“But they have nevertheless been paid. Some have worked, some haven’t worked. Most of the studies say that some have just gone through the motions,” he said.
The president also said workers may be asked to prove that they didn’t have a second job “during their so-called employment with the United States of America.”
“If they did, that would be unlawful,” he said.
Mr. Trump said he thinks a “very substantial” number of workers will not show up.
“Therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient and that’s what we’ve been looking to do for many, many decades,” he said.
The administration has offered buyouts to most federal employees, saying they will be paid through Sept. 30 if they decide to resign by Feb. 6.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, debated on air over the federal workforce after Mr. Miller suggested that employees who lost their jobs might blame their liberal standing.
“There [are] 2 million employees in the federal government,” Mr. Miller said Tuesday on “The Lead.” “Overwhelmingly the career federal service in this country is far left, left wing.”
He said the employees from the United States Agency for International Development were examined and that “98% either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate.”
Mr. Tapper injected, saying Mr. Miller is “demonizing an entire workforce.”
Mr. Miller shouted back asking him, “Did you just say that saying someone voted for Kamala Harris is demonizing them?”
He started laughing before saying, “You just said that I’m demonizing somebody by saying they voted for Kamala Harris.”
After Mr. Tapper asked to get the interview back on track, and Mr. Miller said he was on track, the White House official explained that “the American people voted for dramatic change implemented by Donald Trump.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.