The decision of former United States President, Donald Trump to run for office again in 2024 is causing anxiety for career Public Servants, in no small part because Mr Trump’s doctrine is becoming broadly accepted by the mainstream of his Republican Party.
Mr Trump (pictured) says if he is re-elected he will dismantle the “deep state” and wreak retribution on his political enemies.
He has released proposals to take down what many conservatives believe is a secret cabal of Government workers who wield enormous power and work against Republicans.
These include cracking down on Government whistle-blowers, making troves of classified documents public and creating independent auditors to monitor Intelligence Agencies.
However, it is the lead proposal that concerns Public Servants and excites conservative activists.
Mr Trump says he will reinstitute his Executive Order known as Schedule F, which would reclassify tens of thousands of Federal employees involved in policy decisions as at-will employees.
In other words, they would lose their Public Service employment protections, making it much easier for a President to fire them.
A taste of how the policy might be used came in a pledge in Mr Trump’s proposal immediately following Schedule F to “overhaul Federal Departments and Agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus”.
The Schedule F policy was instituted in the final weeks of Mr Trump’s Administration but not fully implemented and cancelled by incoming President, Joe Biden.
This time around, should Mr Trump return to the White House, there would be little delay.
Yet the embrace of this proposal extends beyond Mr Trump, with many believing it is now the doctrine of the Republican Party.
President of the Centre for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank, Russ Vought said he could not see anyone running for the party who did not want to put Schedule F into play.
Washington, 29 April 2023
