As promised, Trump inflicts ‘trauma’ on federal workers
A vindictive, mean-spirited purge is already underway
By Mike Sorrell
President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told an audience in late October that he and others in the Trump administration intend to bring “trauma” to federal workers.
“We want bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwith financially to do so.
“We want to put them in trauma.”
ProPublica reported on those remarks delivered at an annual conference held by the Center for Renewing America, where Vought worked.
A videotape is posted on YouTube:
Trump got busy this week in the early hours and days of his presidency. He issued more than 100 executive orders, including one mean-spirited, slash-and-burn executive order that shuts down all federal offices and programs involved in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which until now have provided equal opportunity in the workplace for people of any race or gender.
DEI offices throughout the government and military employ thousands of people. He put all of those federal employees on administrative leave this week, so they will twist in the wind until they find out when Trump, in all likelihood, will eliminate their jobs.
Other “bureaucrats” throughout the federal government are nervous because Trump and his lieutenants say federal employees suspected of disloyalty to Trump will be replaced by partisan Republicans. Not just a few of them, but hundreds, if not thousands.
A confirmation hearing for Vought as OMB director was held Wednesday by the Senate Budget Committee. All Republicans in the Senate are expected to confirm Vought. Democrats on the committee tried to hold Vought’s feet to the fire, but he seemed unperturbed. Ideologues are not easily rattled by an opposing point of view.
C-Span cameras did appear to catch a slight flinch by the nominee when Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia noted that Vought has never held a job outside the federal government or Washington-based think tanks that seek to influence the government. He worked 10 years on Capitol Hill and was OMB director during Trump’s first administration.
The senator said Vought has “always been a bureaucrat” and now wants to “traumatize” bureaucrats.
As Warner said, that’s weird.
How deep into ideology is someone who not only wants to oust people from their jobs but also traumatize them in the process of doing so?
Vought was a key architect of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a road map for how the Trump administration will change the federal government. There was heavy public opposition when Project 2025 came onto the radar during the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump said he had nothing to do with Project 2025 and had not read it. Now he obviously follows that right-wing playbook.
Federal workers can expect more trauma.
In fact, we all can.