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Hiring people who are going to be loyal, no matter what.
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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that creates a new category for federal workers called “Schedule G.” This will allow him to hire and fire employees who work on policy decisions or advocacy. This is the latest step in his administration’s push to change how the federal workforce operates and to give the president more control.
According to The Guardian, employees under Schedule G will be labeled as “non-career” positions, meaning they will likely lose their jobs when a new president takes office. The White House claims this new category will “make agencies run better, especially places like the Department of Veterans Affairs, by making it easier to fill important policy jobs.” They also say it will “break up the deep state and take back our government from corruption in Washington.”
However, Schedule G just seems like another way to add politics to federal jobs. Don Moynihan, a public policy expert at the University of Michigan, said it “creates room at the top levels of government for Trump supporters to take policy jobs, with no cap on how many can be hired” and “fits the pattern of making the workforce more political.” Basically, if you support Trump, you’re fine, but if you turncoat, then you can be fired.
Trump to make special employees for his term
This new category follows earlier attempts by the Trump administration to weaken job protections for federal workers. Near the end of his first term, Trump tried to introduce “Schedule F,” which was brought back earlier this year. Schedule F would have removed job security for certain federal employees, allowing them to be fired for any reason. The administration has also tried to get rid of union rights and make it simpler to fire federal workers without a good reason.
Cutting back on civil service protections is a major part of “Project 2025,” a conservative plan for what a second Trump administration could do. The project pushes for turning more non-political career jobs into positions filled by political appointees. The goal is to make the federal government more loyal to the president and less likely to push back on his decisions.
Max Stier, who leads the Partnership for Public Service, called Schedule G “another wrong move by the administration to make the federal workforce more political.” He said it will just make the civil service system harder to understand, pointing out that the president already has the power to fill thousands of political jobs through existing systems like Schedule C. Stier stressed that a neutral civil service is vital for keeping government services running smoothly for Americans, and adding more temporary political hires will only hurt stable government operations.
Published: Jul 18, 2025 03:24 pm