In his first go-around, it took President Trump 10 days to make his first major firing.

This time it started on Day 1. And it’s kept going.

In his first three days in office, he ousted the heads of two Homeland Security Department agencies, booted the chief of the agency that oversees Voice of America, tossed the members of a privacy watchdog board and put every federal employee engaged in DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion, on paid leave.

That doesn’t even include the heads of the FBI and IRS, both of whom resigned rather than wait to be fired.

Mr. Trump likely sidelined more employees in his first three days in office than he did in all of 2017, his first year in the White House.

The aggressive approach has been panned by Mr. Trump’s critics and cheered by his fans, many of whom had expected this sort of bloodbath in the first term — particularly from a man who made “You’re fired!” a national catchphrase — and were surprised it didn’t happen.

Experts said the firings show a president firmly in control of his party, more so than any predecessor, and so he’s able to be more aggressive than the last go-around.

“It’s night and day,” said Jeremy Mayer, a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. “It’s different from any president since FDR, and maybe ever, in the way he’s grasping executive power and using it in creative and often unprecedented ways.”

Early ousters this time include the commandant of the Coast Guard, whom the Trump team found too focused on DEI and not focused enough on border security, and the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

Some firings were largely symbolic.

Chef Jose Andres, who has been a vicious critic of Mr. Trump for years, was booted out of his role on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. Brian Hook, a former envoy to Iran, was removed from the Wilson Center for Scholars. And retired Army Gen. Mark Milley was kicked off the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee.

Mr. Trump delighted in the ousters on social media.

“YOU’RE FIRED!” he wrote, reprising his catchphrase from NBC’s “Apprentice” reality TV show.

“My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” Mr. Trump wrote on Tuesday.

Among the new firings is Elizabeth Pena, whom The Daily Wire reported was a Biden staffer who managed to burrow her way into the career civil service at the Labor Department during the transition. The outlet reported that the Trump team canned her on Thursday.

The DEI employees haven’t been fired yet but Mr. Trump’s acting director of the Office of Personnel Management ordered them all put on paid leave as of Wednesday evening. They were told not to show up for work, and their email access was suspended, but they can collect pay and benefits — for now.

The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump has also canned three members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a watchdog that in the past has exposed abuses in the government’s warrantless surveillance programs.

Former FBI Director Christopher Wray and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel both resigned this month rather than stick around to be fired.

Amanda Bennett, who had been head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other state-funded news operations, left her post on Inauguration Day.

Michael McKenna, a contributing editor at The Washington Times who served as a senior aide in the last Trump White House, said the moves send a message.

“They learned that Reagan was right — personnel is policy,” he said. “They also figured out you don’t have to fire the whole world. You set a tone and everybody will follow it.”

Mr. Mayer said the firings are going to be popular with Mr. Trump’s fans, particularly moves like taking an ax to all DEI staffers.

“There are going to be very few tears shed in the heartland,” he said. “No president has ever delivered this quickly. But that’s what authoritarians can do when you have a cult of personality around yourself.”

Mr. Trump’s moves to take control of the executive branch raise big questions about how government should work.

On the one hand are those who say the professional bureaucracy is a fundamental part of checks and balances, steering the ship of state on a steady course no matter who is president. Others, particularly conservative legal scholars in recent years, argue the founders intended the bureaucracy to be responsive to voters through the person of the president — which means he or she must be able to clear out those who would stand in the way of their policies.

It’s a lesson the Trump team was slow to learn in the first term.

Back then, Mr. Trump didn’t score his first big firing until 10 days into his term, when he canned acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama years who refused to defend his travel ban policy in the courts.

Two weeks later he booted his new national security adviser, Michael Flynn. It wasn’t until May that he fired FBI Director James Comey, a move that sparked the creation of the two-year special counsel’s investigation that ended up clearing Mr. Trump of Russia “collusion” allegations but dinged him for the firing.

Still, most of the high-profile firings from Mr. Trump’s first term were, like Mr. Flynn, his own people. They included Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci — who was fired after what seemed like a record-short 11 days in the White House.

Mr. Trump’s move to control personnel goes beyond firings.

He has ordered a hiring freeze for all non-national security or public safety positions.

Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called that a “cease-and-desist order to the IRS,” derailing a Biden administration hiring spree that could have brought on tens of thousands of new auditors and agents.

Mr. Mayer said Mr. Trump’s leeway to be so aggressive depends on yardsticks such as the stock market, inflation and unemployment numbers staying strong.

If those go — or if Mr. Trump suffers significant political losses in the 2026 midterm elections — he might have to “behave more like a regular president,” Mr. Mayer said.

• This article has been updated to reflect that the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media resigned her post.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.